


Where Two Worlds Come To Meet

by LilyAceOfDiamonds



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Anxiety, Gen, Hypervigilance, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Isle Trauma, Isle of the Lost (Disney), Isle of the Lost (Disney) is a Terrible Place, It is now, Multi, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Esteem Issues, is Isle Trauma a tag yet?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:40:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 20,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27343678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilyAceOfDiamonds/pseuds/LilyAceOfDiamonds
Summary: The Villain Kids try to acclimate to Auradon life, but after sixteen years on the Isle it’s harder to let go than they had thought. Luckily, they have each other and even possibly some new ... allies ... to make it through the tough times.Snapshot Descendants drabbles written for the Comfortember 2020 writing prompts on tumblr. Missing scenes, character headcanons, and backstories that may not follow canon, because I say so. (Mature rating for, well, Isle Trauma and all that, not sex. There’s no smut, sorry not sorry.)Chapter List1: Rescue — Evie2: First Day — Carlos3: Nightmare — Jay4: Anxiety — Mal5: Cuddling — Jane6: Afraid to Sleep — Audrey7: Blanket Fort — Lonnie8: Lashing Out — Evie9: Confession — Doug10: Crying — Audrey11: PTSD — Chad12: ESA Pet — Jay13: Baking — Mal14: Road Trip — Ben15: Campfire — Doug16: Protective — Carlos17: Flashbacks — Evie18: Hot Cocoa — Lonnie19: Memory Lane — Mal20: Movie Night — Jay
Relationships: Evie & Jay & Mal & Carlos de Vil
Comments: 21
Kudos: 152
Collections: Comfortember 2020





	1. Rescue

**Author's Note:**

> Each chapter heading will be that day’s prompt. I’ll be adding characters and tags as they become relevant, but please let me know if I miss any potential trigger warnings!
> 
> Most of these will be not be set on the Isle (at least not at my current rough plan, which is subject to change) but the effects of living in that particular hell will be touched on, directly or indirectly and through many different POVs. Besides, what is the point of comfort fics if you can’t have trauma and angst to get comfort for?
> 
> If you have any suggestions of characters or interactions, or would like to scream about the Descendants (or anything else, really), my tumblr is LilyAceOfDiamonds, come and ask or dm me!

Evie is headed down to the Isle’s main square to meet up with her allies — not friends, of course not — the day after the letter came about the four of them being summoned to Auradon. Her mother, the Evil Queen, had let her leave if she picks up some more cosmetic creams on her way home, and Evie was happy to agree if it gives her an afternoon of outdoor freedom.

Jay had told her and Carlos where to meet him and Mal after they had split up the day before to go tell their parents of Maleficant’s news. They only had a week before they were going across the barrier, according to the letter.

She’s trying to remember which alleyway Jay had said to turn at when suddenly she’s grabbed and pulled into the dead-end avenue she was passing on her left. Her breath catches as she lands against a rough wall with a wince, trying to keep her hands and hair from touching the alley’s grime so her mother won’t complain.

Three people stand in front of her, older teens that she doesn’t know. Scowling and armed with knives much like the one Evie has tucked into her boot, the girl in charge gestures to Evie’s skirt and the pocket she had sewn in.

“The money. Now.” The two boys behind her leer and crowd closer as Evie calculates whether or not she can stand to lose the ten coins her mother had given her, and suffer the consequences that would come of returning home without the precious creams.

“I won’t ask again. The. Money.” The girl’s braid swings as she steps closer, and Evie sighs as she prepares for another long night of disappointment. She’s reaching into her pocket when a voice comes from the mouth of the alley.

“No.”

It’s Mal, green eyes blazing as she stalks into the avenue and comes to a halt right in front of Evie. Who definitely doesn’t shrink behind her, because she doesn’t need protection. From anyone.

“No? Good one, Mal.” The other girl laughs, but slowly quiets as Mal just crosses her arms. “Wait, really?”

“I claimed her. And the De Vil boy. They’re under my protection now, and stealing from them? Means you’re stealing from me.”

The trio had been backing up slowly towards the entrance of the alley as Mal spoke, fear in their eyes, and they turn tail and run as Mal growls out the last word. Evie closes her eyes with a sigh of relief, sagging back against the wall before she remembers how dirty it is and jumps away quickly, smoothing her skirt.

Mal stares out for a moment before she turns to look at Evie, and suddenly Evie registers the words the other girl had said.

“Did you mean that? That you claim us, me and Carlos.” She winces at how bluntly that came out, but Mal is nodding.

“Of course. You’re part of my gang now, with Jay. We were going to ask you today at the hideout, make it formal and all that, but I may have gotten ahead of myself.”

Evie laughs softly. “My knight in scuffed leather to the rescue. Which I didn’t need, by the way. I was handling it.”

Mal raises an eyebrow. “Sure, if by ‘handling it’ you mean giving this up to Ginny and her cronies.” She tosses a familiar-looking bag up in one hand and catches it with the other, and Evie slips a hand into her pocket to find it empty.

“What — Mal! You’re as bad as Jay, I swear. Give it back!”

“Only if you admit you needed my help.” The dragon girl grins sharply as Evie glares at her.

“Fine. Things went easier when you arrived, thank you for coming to my rescue.” She holds her hand out, and Mal shrugs before tossing the pouch to her.

“Close enough. Come on, Jay and Carlos are already at the hideout. We need to plan. We only have six days before we end up at some prissy school of goodness or whatever.”

Evie tucks the pouch away carefully before following Mal back out onto the main street. They had other things to focus on for now.

“You and Jay have a hideout?”


	2. First Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TWs for mentions of Cruella’s craziness and controlling nature, as well as anxiety and hyper-vigilance.

Carlos locks the door to his and Jay’s new room with a sigh, dropping down to sit against the wall before he even takes more than a quick glance through the room itself. Doug had just left, after showing the girls to their room before crossing the campus lawn to the boy’s dorms.

It had been an exhausting day.

He hadn’t thought his mother would let him come with the others to Auradon. He had bolted for the car as she yelled his name, throwing his bag into the trunk and squeezing through the door after Evie in one motion. She didn’t drag him back out by the scruff of his neck, though, and Jay had climbed in after to block the claws Carlos was sure had been inches from grabbing him.

There had been a brief moment where Carlos and the others had been convinced they were going to be sent into the ocean before the barrier’s magic created the bridge, but that panic faded slowly with the allure of the car’s contents.

The long car they rode across the magic bridge in — a limo, according to Ben — was stocked with all sorts of crazy food, more colorful than anything they had ever had on the Isle of the Lost. After a long moment spent glancing back and forth looking for a trap, they had decided that if the food was poisoned at least they would get to eat it first.

Tasting all the different candies had taken up most of the ride to their new school, and Carlos still had the remnants of his feasting spread across his fingers and face as he and Jay tumbled out of the car after the girls.

There were so many people he couldn’t concentrate with all the noise, so he stuck to the back of their group, knowing Mal and Jay were scanning for potential threats as well. He only half listened to the introductions of some of the students, too busy analyzing the threat levels and trying not to wince as the woman in charge spoke with what had to be a overly exaggerated level of ... cheer, or optimism, although why she was putting on such a show Carlos didn’t understand.

They knew what they were, what everyone surely thought of the Villain Kids, how much they had at stake. She didn’t have to sugar-coat it for their sake, they weren’t babies after all.

Mal had warily accepted the handshake from Prince Ben that Jay had been too rattled to fake on the spot. When he hadn’t tried to trick her, Carlos had allowed the prince to shake his hand too, and even got a name for the brown creme coating his fingers.

Chocolate. Whatever that was. It still tasted good, as he stuck his thumb in his mouth to suck the last bit of the, um, chocolate off as Ben kept talking.

The showdown between Mal and the girl who was apparently Sleeping Beauty’s daughter was over practically before it started, complete with lies and fake laughs Carlos and the others could spot instantly, and Ben led them on to tour the campus of Auradon Prep, their new school.

Carlos sighs and pulls his knees up to rest his chin on as he watches Jay go from door to window and check every nook and cranny for potential traps and hazards. He was sure Mal was doing the same in the girls’ room. You can never be too careful, especially in a strange place with lots of unfamiliar people who claim to be ‘good’.

As if any of them believed that for a second.

“We’re good.” Jay says, having finished his sweep, but Carlos doesn’t bother to move from against the wall even as some of the tension drains from his body because their immediate area is Safe.

“Carlos? You okay?” He hears Jay sit on one of the beds, although they don’t squeak or squeal like the few beds Carlos had seen on the island. His eyes had shuttered closed when the room was deemed safe, aching from constant vigilance, and he taps one finger against his leg to answer yes without opening them.

“Yeah, it’s been a long day.” Jay sighs, and a few minutes later Carlos hears the familiar rustling of the thief pulling things from his assortment of pockets. He never could be still for long periods of time, especially when he had so many new targets for his sticky fingers.

Eventually the anxiety that had been thrumming through him since the limo had appeared on the island dulls to a barely-there hum, and Carlos can breathe a little easier. He gets up to sit hesitantly on the other bed, crouching on the edge and watching Jay pick through his treasures.

“Here, take a look at this. It has nerd written all over it.” Jay tosses over a thin rectangle that Carlos recognizes as a computer. He had never seen a working one, since there wasn’t any kind of reliable internet on the Isle, but they had learned about them in one of his classes. The teacher had showed them diagrams and theoretical applications of such devices, comparing them to the televisions that only had two channels but with so much more information. Especially here in Auradon.

He grabs it before it can slip off the bed and opens it, but there’s a knock at the door to their room that has Carlos slipping it under the bed and Jay covering his treasures with a hastily thrown blanket before stalking towards the door. Doug’s voice comes through after Jay asks who it is, telling them he can take them to dinner, and Carlos looks at the clock in confusion.

It had been almost an hour since he had dropped them off.

Carlos feels his muscles tense up again, this time at the thought of all that wasted time. He could have cleaned the entire kitchen of Hell Hall in the amount of time he had spent spacing out against the wall.

Jay coughs as he approaches on louder-than-silent footsteps and Carlos looks up, thankful for the carefully-broadcasted movements the thief uses as he sits down on his bed and slips his stolen wares back into his pockets for safekeeping. “I told him we’ll be out in a minute, he’s going to meet us in that large empty front room by the building’s main door. You up for this?”

Carlos nods and taps his finger against his knee again as he uncurls from his position and stands up slowly.

His stomach growls, and really, that decides things for him.

Dinner was not a thing he was going to miss out on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carlos can talk, but I headcanon that he’s got selective mutism, especially in high stress situations (which, to be fair, is most of his home life) and the VKs probably have a system of signals that also happen to be useful for crime.


	3. Nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TWs for the Evil Queen’s ... rules for Evie, if that makes sense, as well as general child neglect, although they are very brief mentions. Also, Nightmares, if the title didn’t give it away, although said nightmare isn’t actually described at all.
> 
> I promise more characters are coming soon!

Jay spent the first hour ‘after curfew’ tossing and turning on his new bed.

His first bed, rather, thinking of the rug he usually slept on in the corner of his dad’s junk shop. When he hadn’t been kicked out of the shop, of course.

This bed feels like he’s sinking on clouds, and Jay isn’t sure how he feels about it. Even the few times he had crashed on Mal’s bed with her, it was still lumpy and squeaky. How did Auradon kids sleep like this?

Plus, he usually did his best work at this time of night. Being stuck inside because of one of Fairy Godmother’s many, many rules was setting him on edge.

So, he gave up trying to sleep. After making sure Carlos was okay, curled in one corner of his own bed, Jay slipped out the window and latched it again after leaving a note on the other boy’s bedside table.

Finally, out in the fresh night air. It smelled nicer than the Isle, too.

Jay runs silently across the lawn toward the girl’s dorm, and counts windows until he gets to Mal and Evie’s. Mall had even left one of their tags on the corner of the window for him, and he makes a note to put one up for them when he got back.

He climbs up to the second story window and picks the latch, swinging through and landing softly on the pads of his feet. He re-locks the window before turning and taking in the room’s decor.

Mal must hate it. Everything is pink and white and frilly, and Jay stiffles a laugh as he imagines her expression of distaste.

One of the beds is empty, the one closest to the door. He knows it must be Mal’s, for the same reason that Jay himself took the bed nearest the door in his own room. They protect their own.

With no sign of Mal in the room, Jay assumes she is out exploring like he had been, which explains the quick-sketch tag on the window. It would be easier to find on the way back than counting windows like Jay had done, although he was sure Mal had done that too. They liked to be thorough.

The other bed is occupied by a sleeping Evie, and Jay quietly glides through the room checking the doors, windows, and hidden nooks much like he had done in his and Carlos’ room, careful not to wake the princess.

He knows Mal probably did already, but a second set of eyes never hurt. He wouldn’t be surprised if she was doing the same thing to his own room while she was exploring.

A soft whisper catches his ear, and he turns from his examination of the pictures on the wall to look over at Evie. She’s not moving, but her forehead is creased the way her mother hates, and her breath is coming quicker than normal.

He sees her lips move this time, and moves close enough to hear the same words he reads on her lips.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Mother.’

He curses under his breath in Arabic as he slides to his knees by her bed. “Evie, Evie, wake up, Princess. Evie!”

He shakes her shoulder gently, something they all know never to do to Carlos or himself but could work for either of the girls. Sure enough, Evie’s breath catches slightly as her eyes blink open. She stares at him for a second before sweeping her gaze over the rest of the room and sighing in relief.

“Hello Jay.”

He grins back at her, sitting back on his heels.

“Hey, Princess. Nightmare?”

She grimaces before smoothing her expression out automatically, and Jay silently curses her mother for the insane rules she had placed on her daughter.

“I’m fine.” She runs her fingers over the thick blanket on her bed, and Jay knows better than to press her. Instead he slides onto the bed.

“Want some company?”

He’ll leave if she wants, or go sit on Mal’s bed until she falls asleep again, but he’s pretty sure she’ll say yes. They had all huddled together the winter before, sharing warmth and comfort alike, even as their parents openly disapproved of the too-close allyship.

Evie nods and pulls the covers away from one side to let Jay slide in. “Yes, please. You couldn’t sleep, either? Mal left twenty minutes ago.”

He shrugs. “It’s all just ... a lot. A lot of change.”

She hums as Jay curls around her, and she nestles back against his chest.

“Everything is different here. Different people, different rules.”

He knows what she means without her having to spell it out. They knew how the Isle worked, what and who to avoid, what to do to keep the status quo and their parents happy. Here, though, they were flying blind with no clue as to what could land them in trouble and no baseline for the expectations of the people around them.

Jay nods against her dark blue hair, and pulls her even closer.

“We’ll figure it out. Besides, we have each other.”

He can hear her smile as she responds softly. “Because we’re rotten.”

Jay smiles in response as he closes his eyes and whispers back, “To the core.”

Then silence reigns once more as they both slip off to sleep, safe and secure with each other’s presence and leaving the terrors of the unknown behind for another day.


	4. Anxiety

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for mild anxiety, and more mentions of Isle Trauma that the kids just brush off as normal (these ones: the lack-thereof of beds, much like last chapter, and Cruella's rules for Carlos).
> 
> And hey, there's Ben! See, told you more characters would show up.

Mal wakes up to a knock on the door, and unwinds slowly from Carlos’ sleeping form. She hadn’t meant to stay the entire night, just long enough to tag their window on her way in and inspect their room for anything suspect. Jay had left almost an hour earlier according to the note she read on the pup’s side table.

She had panicked a little when both of their beds had been empty, but searching the room quickly had unearthed Carlos curled up on the rug by the bookcase, a spare blanket covering his small form. Mal was pretty sure he had stolen it from Jay’s bed.

When she had woken him up gently to ask why he was on the floor, he had shrugged and said that the bed was weird. Which she supposed would be true, since Carlos’ ‘bed’ on the Isle was a ratty thin mattress in Cruella’s spare dressing room. He hadn’t even been able to use the fur coats in the closet as blankets, and had frozen every winter until Evie had dropped by a pillow and blanket of her own for the younger boy to use the year before.

Even Mal and Evie had taken a few minutes to get used to the quiet, comfortable mattress that were so different from what they had on the island. The boys, though, had never had that luxury.

Mal had coaxed Carlos back to the bed and curled up around him after her security check. She was only planning to stay until the pup was asleep, but the events of the day had finally caught up with her and she was unaware of the passage of time until the knock at the door.

She looked over and saw that Jay’s bed was still empty, but knew the thief could take care of himself. If he wasn’t with Evie.

There’s a second knock, and Carlos stirs behind her.

“Who’s’t?” He mumbles, and Mal laughs softly as she runs a hand through his curls before getting up to answer the door.

It’s Ben, hand raised to knock a third time as she slowly cracks the door open, one foot positioned just forward enough that it would stop the door from slamming open if the person on the other side tried to shove their way past her.

He blinks at her. “Mal?”

She raises an eyebrow. “Ben.”

“What ... what are you doing in the boys dorm?”

Mal sees more people emerging into the hallway and sighs, pulling Ben into the room to keep unwanted eyes and ears away before shutting the door silently. “Sleeping. You?”

He blinks again. “But ... Girls aren’t allowed in the boys dorm.”

Well, that’s just stupid.

She tells him as much, and Ben rubs the back of his neck in an awkward tell of unease. “It’s one of Fairy Godmother’s rules. No boys in the girls dorm, and no girls in the boys. To cut down on inappropriate activity.”

Mal rolls her eyes. “Sleeping isn’t inappropriate activity.”

He hesitates again, looking around to avoid meeting her eyes. “Well, no, but just in case something, well, more were to happen. Where’s Jay?”

She snorts at his obvious attempt to change the conversation, but settles on the missing boy’s bed. “Probably with Evie. Sleeping.”

Ben’s mouth opens, and then he closes it again after a few seconds. He clearly doesn’t want to start the same conversation over again.

“Are you going to tell on us?” Carlos had sat up in his bed while she at the door, and was twisting his fingers in the blanket in his lap. He was worried, but trying not to show it in front of the prince.

Mal knew all the signs and stages of the younger boy’s anxiety, though, and did her best to distract Ben from looking too closely at the pup.

“Of course he isn’t. We didn’t know the rules, so there isn’t any reason to get us in trouble.” She and Carlos both knew how false that was, but she hoped the Auradon boy might actually believe that there had to be a reason for a punishment. It seemed like the type of thing these goody-goody princes and princesses would be taught.

How naive they were.

Ben was nodding, eyes pulled back to her when she spoke up, and Carlos had let out a barely-there sigh of relief when the prince’s gaze was no longer trained on him.

“Of course not. We should go over the ground rules for the school today though, I’ll ask Fairy Godmother to discuss them in Goodness class.”

“Looking forward to it.” Mal barely avoids rolling her eyes, and Carlos lets out a small smirk when she catches his eye. He looked calmer now. “Was there a reason you came by, your princely-ness?”

Ben flushes, ducking his head at the name. “Just Ben, is fine. Breakfast! I came to let you know, well, let Jay and Carlos know that breakfast is in an hour. Audrey is supposed to tell you and Evie.”

Mal wonders if the princess would be as shocked as Ben, if Jay was in her room. She claps her hands on her knees and stands up.

“Well, I guess it’s time to be getting ready for the day, then! Our first day of school, lots to do before breakfast. Thanks for stopping by, Ben!” She herds the prince toward the door and shoves him out, shutting the door quickly before he can do much more than stammer out a quick ‘okay, bye.’

She drops the fake smile, turns her back on the door — after locking it, of course — and heads back to Carlos’ bed.

“Ten more minutes, and then we need to go get Jay and Evie. She’ll kill us if she doesn’t have enough time to get ready.”

Mal rolls her eyes but nods at Carlos’ ultimatum, laying down next to him.

“Apparently she’ll already be up, if Miss Priss Sleeping Beauty’s Daughter actually did what Ben said.”

Carlos snorts and lets Mal slide back under the covers. “Yeah but if she doesn’t, I don’t want to be on princess’s shit list when she finds out we had more time to get ready than she did.”

Mal leans her head against his chest, feeling his heartbeat slow down with every second since the initial panic of getting in trouble before the first day had even started.

“You’re right, as usual. Now hush, pup, sleeping time.”

He hushes, and they enjoy ten minutes of rest before going to get the rest of the gang for their first day at Auradon Prep.


	5. Cuddling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TWs for the whole 'even villains love their kids' cookie scene feelings, and also some major low self-esteem issues for Jane (partially related to some of my headcanons for her, see the end notes for sections to skip, spoilers, or explanations).

Jane is finishing up her last assignment — an essay on the properties of dragon’s blood for her Purely Theoretical Magic class — when Lonnie gets back to their shared dorm room. The other girl had gone down to the kitchens to get a snack, even though they weren’t supposed to be out of their rooms after curfew.

Lonnie sighs loudly enough that Jane can hear it, and she puts her essay carefully away and closes the book before turning to face her friend.

“What’s wrong?” She notices Lonnie’s hands are empty, and frowns a little. Usually the other girl will bring back snacks for them to share, since she knows Jane doesn’t like to break the rules her mother sets. “No snacks?”

Lonnie rubs a hand against her cheeks and shakes her head, looking up like she’s trying to keep herself from crying.

Now Jane is really concerned. Lonnie doesn’t cry about Anything.

She moves her schoolwork off of its place next to her on the window seat and pats the velvet cushion. “Wanna talk about it?”

Lonnie nods and comes to join her on the seat, their backs against each of the walls as they sit facing each other so Jane can read her lips better.

“The transfer students were in the kitchen.”

Okay, that hadn’t been what Jane had expected to hear.

Ben was trying to get everyone to call Mal and the others ‘transfer students’ instead of ‘villain kids’ or ‘Isle kids’, and it was kind of working. Jane could respect wanting to not be labeled by where you came from or who your parents are.

She had a hard enough time herself trying to step out of her mother’s overbearing shadow. Mom was just protective, especially given her bad hearing and struggles with social situations.

Especially since she knew her mother probably wished she could just wave her magic wand and fix her. But the magic ban’s rules had been increasing over the years as King Adam and Queen Belle tried to work out how to balance the mundane with the magical, and doing that much magic was forbidden.

Instead, Jane was subjected to many a lecture — well, conversation, but her mom’s teaching instincts got away from her sometimes — about how any boy would be attracted to her kind soul (instead of her lacking physical attributes and social understanding, her own brain supplied helpfully), how beauty came from within, how she didn’t need to be like the other girls. She never would be, so why bother trying?

It was why she let mom dress her and do her hair in her old lady style, letting her mother go on about how cute she looked when Jane didn’t want to look ‘cute’. She wanted to look cool, or popular, or even rebellious.

But she never would be, not when everyone knew the headmistress’s daughter was given special accommodations to account for her slow understanding and diminished hearing. Which mostly translated to more time on assignments and instructions written down, since the teachers were the only ones she really talked to besides Lonnie.

She couldn’t keep up with the other kids as they used compliments to hide insults, jokes that hid innuendo, or any of the other social conventions Jane had never caught on to until Lonnie had taken pity on her roommate and started explaining them to her. The other girl filled her in on all the gossip she missed out on when the princesses were talking too fast or away from her line of sight for her to catch all the words, too, for which Jane was grateful. Her mother never cared to tell her the rumors around school.

Mom knew that she wouldn’t fair well thrust into the chaos of teenage princes and princesses, so she encouraged Jane to focus on schoolwork and things that would keep her safe, like being the school mascot instead of a cheerleader like she had once told her mom she wanted to try.

Which had made her introducing Jane to the um, transfer students all the more shocking. But maybe she had just wanted them to know that if they messed with Jane they would have to deal with the consequences.

Mal had been nice to her, though, and the new — long! — hair was totally worth her mom complaining about how much harder it was going to be for Jane to take care of.

Lonnie’s new hair looked appropriately cool, too, although her old style had been an attempt to fix a prank by her brother rather than an insistence of her parents.

Jane is pulled out of her thoughts as Lonnie begins to talk, pressing their knees together to get Jane’s attention.

“Their parents never made them cookies.” Jane thinks she heard Lonnie wrong but the other girl catches herself and backs up, explaining everything she had seen and said in the kitchen that had shocked her into leaving without getting her own snack.

“I mean, I guess that makes sense. Good parents love their kids, and in reverse, evil parents ...” Jane trails off, not wanting to say it, but Lonnie nods anyway, fresh tears falling down her cheeks.

Jane sighs and pulls Lonnie toward her, shifting so they are both leaning against the window. Lonnie curls up with her head on Jane’s chest, cuddling into her as Jane runs her fingers through the others longer hair like her own mother does when Jane is upset about something not going the way it’s supposed to.

“It’ll be okay. They’re here in Auradon now. We can show them what love is.”

“How?” Lonnie projects her voice just loud enough that Jane can hear it easily.

“By being their friends. Being nice to them. There are probably a bunch of things they’ve never done before, if the Isle of the Lost didn’t even have fresh cookies.”

“It didn’t have a lot of things, judging by the way they eat in the cafeteria.”

Lonnie had pointed out the skepticism and wariness that the Isle kids had displayed at dinner their first day, and Jane had caught on quickly enough to see the same expressions continue throughout the week. There was a rumor flying around that they hadn't even known what chocolate was, which Jane couldn’t even imagine.

“Yeah.” Jane agrees quietly, still carding her fingers through the long hair in front of her as Lonnie hugs her midsection. “We should get some of the boys in on it, too.”

“Ben.” Lonnie says immediately, and Jane nods. “And probably Doug, too. He’s nice to everybody.”

Their plans made, they sit in comfortable silence for a while longer before getting up and going to bed.

Tomorrow was a new day, and a new chance to make some friends. Jane was excited, even if they were friends that her mother might not approve of.

Okay, maybe that was a point in the plus column of ‘reasons to help the villain kids’.

She’s allowed a little rebellion in her life. Cinderella had, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jane headcanons: Okay, so I made Jane hard of hearing and on the autism spectrum. Because of the way her mother talks loudly and slowly to her or about her, the way she's always looking/staring at people when talking to them, and a bunch of other little reasons.
> 
> Low self esteem: Jane, because of the above headcanons and having an over-protective mother, thinks that she shouldn't bother to try and be pretty/smart/etc because 'she never will be'. If you would like to skip the 'Jane thinks poorly about herself' section, look for the paragraph beginning "She had a hard enough time herself trying to step out of her mother's overbearing shadow" (that one's okay to read) and then skip the next eight paragraphs. You can pop back in at "Lonnie's new hair looked appropriately cool, too." and you'll be past all the self-deprecating introspection.
> 
> (I promise I don't hate Fairy Godmother, but as a disability-having human with overbearing parents who wouldn't let me grow out my hair because it was harder for me to brush until I went off to college, the whole hair thing was a Thing, okay? And fairy godmother sets me a little on edge, especially the way she talks to the VKs and her daughter.)


	6. Afraid To Sleep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TWs for mild anxiety, nightmares, and the rules that the Auradon royalty (Queen Leah, in this case) place on their children/grandchildren expecting them to be Perfect. Because that really messes kids up, trying to constantly live up to extremely high standards of perfection.
> 
> Featuring a different version of Audrey (and Chad) than we see in the movies, because goddamn it no one is that shallow or bitchy if they aren't trying to hide something (or live up to their parents' expectations).

Audrey couldn’t sleep.

It had been a week since Ben had let those kids come to Auradon Prep, and Audrey felt like she hadn’t slept a wink since they got here.

Since Mal got here.

She had grown up hearing the stories of the evil fairy Maleficent, sometimes she thought that was all Grammy Leah ever talked about. The horned fae who had cursed her precious daughter, who had put them all to sleep for a hundred years.

The daughter she had never gotten to raise, in an attempt to protect her from Mal’s mother’s curse. And it hadn’t even worked.

All it had done was make Grammy terrified of missing out on her granddaughter’s childhood, which Audrey could understand. She was the replacement, even if the constant supervision was stifling.

Audrey had grown up with the former Queen beside her for every step of her sixteen years, except when she was at school. She had heard her parents’ story so many times by the time she was four that she could probably recite it backwards if anyone ever asked her to.

Sleeping Beauty, and the curse that led an entire kingdom to sleep for a hundred years.

It had terrified Audrey.

Every time she had gone to take a nap, or got tucked into bed at night by her mother — and grandmother — Audrey had wondered if she would wake up again. Or, even worse, if she would wake up and everyone else would be asleep. She would be all alone, the only one awake in an entire castle.

The dreams were the worst. Audrey had spent many nights running from her room to be tucked next to her parents or grandparents, her head resting on their chests to listen to their hearts beating. Before Chad had pointed out that their hearts would probably still beat if they were cursed to sleep forever, too. They had been six, telling each other their hopes and dreams and fears because no one else cared enough to listen to them.

She had run crying to Leah, who had sent Chad home with a strongly worded letter for his own grandfather. He had apologized the next time they had been allowed to play together, and promised her he would always be there for her when she was afraid.

He had also given her a crown made of roses, calling her his princess, and she had forgiven him. And then got him to teach her how to make flower crowns, which he had apparently learned how to do from his mother.

But he had never gone back on his word, and it was a six-year-old’s promise that had Audrey pulling her phone out to call the one person she knew wouldn’t judge her or expect her to be the perfect princess, like everyone else.

“Audrey?” His voice came quietly through the phone, and she knows he’s trying not to wake Doug up. The dwarf could sleep through just about anything, but Chad still tried to be a considerate roommate.

“Hey.” Audrey suddenly can’t think of anything else to say, and starts to regret calling.

“Couldn’t sleep?” She flinches, her automatic reaction to deny that princesses never went without the perfect amount of rest halfway to her lips before she swallows it down. This was Chad. She could trust him.

“No.” She whispers, still ashamed of showing weakness. Grammy had taught her how to be a princess for sixteen years, and weaknesses were never allowed. She would never catch a prince if she was scared of a little thing like sleeping.

“It’s okay. You’re okay.” Chad says softly through the phone, repeating it until she might even believe him. Her breathing slows down from short gasps she hadn’t realized she had been making, her heartbeat slowing from the staccato it had been pounding in her ribcage. “Do you want me to come over?”

She has no roommate — the one string her mother had pulled for her, when she had pretended that sharing a room with even another princess was beneath her — so he could spend the night with no one the wiser, even if it is technically against the rules. Chad was always careful not to get caught, but they had a cover story planned out that played up the Dumb Chad Persona he had perfected, should such an eventuality occur in the future. They had spent many nights over the school years cuddled together in her room, fighting off both their demons with closeness and comfort.

“No, it’s okay.” She says. “Ben caught the VKs last week, we can’t risk him getting suspicious.”

Yet another thing she had been annoyed at Mal and the others for, bringing the attention of the oh-so-trusting-and-naive Prince Ben to the idea that people may actually break the rules.

They would just have to be more careful in the future.

“Could you, could you just talk?” She whispers, closing her eyes in shame as she wonders what Grammy would say if she saw her Perfect Little Princess now, reduced to listening to someone else talking to be able to fall asleep.

Chad doesn’t say anything, though, he just begins to talk about the clothing designs he was drafting.

Audrey listens to him ramble on about colors and fabrics and never having enough pins when he needs them, and eventually succumbs to a slumber that would last only until her alarm goes off the next morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you liked this different perspective, go read RebelPaisley's story 'Life Is A Masquerade', because that (and the rest of their chad-centric works) is where I shamelessly stole Chad being a clothing designer from. Seriously. They're amazing, go read them. It will blow your mind away and change your perspective of Dumb Chad forever. (Not so much Audrey, but hey, someone has to be a bad guy.)
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/21652201
> 
> Masks are hard to break, you guys. Especially if you've been perfecting one since you were a kid.


	7. Blanket Fort

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No real trigger warnings this time, just the occasional mention of the Isle being less-than-ideal.

Lonnie is the one elected — AKA told by Jane — to go ask the villain kids if they wanted to join the roommates for a movie night. Or maybe a game night. They weren’t sure yet. Something with popcorn had been the only solid plan.

She stops by Evie and Mal’s room and is unsurprised to find the boys there as well. Pausing before the slightly-ajar door, she peeks in to find Jay and Mal already looking in her direction.

Had they heard her coming down the hall? Usually she walks pretty quietly compared to the rest of the kids at AP.

Lonnie shakes her head a little as she knocks for courtesy's sake and slides the door open enough that she can fit through.

“Hey guys!” She smiles brightly at each of them, although Evie is the only one to smile back. Carlos gives a finger-wave from the edge of Evie’s bed while Mal and Jay each quirk an eyebrow in her direction. “Jane and I are going to have a movie or game night in the rec hall lounge!”

Mal and Jay share a look that Lonnie can’t quite figure out, and then Mal glances back over at her. “Have fun?”

Lonnie pauses, confused at their confusion for a second before a lightbulb comes on in her brain. Oh. She needs to be more specific.

“Jane and I are hoping you four will come join us in the rec hall’s lounge for a movie night. Or maybe board games, we haven’t decided yet. It’s Saturday, so we don’t have to worry about being up early for classes or anything. It’ll be fun!” They all share looks that range from confusion to wariness, looking for a trick, and Lonnie brings out her ace card. “We’re going to make popcorn!” 

That didn’t get the reaction she was looking for, all four of them look at her as if they’ve never heard of popcorn before.

They probably haven’t, Lonnie realizes. “It’s a food. Made from corn kernels.”

That seems to convince them, and Mal takes charge again to say they’ll be there in a minute. Lonnie makes sure they know how to get to the rec hall before leaving, stopping by her and Jane’s room to grab her roommate.

She's in the kitchenette off the lounge popping the first bag of popcorn when the villain — um, transfer students get there. She doesn’t even hear the doors open, but suddenly Jay is sitting on the edge of the counter as Carlos lurks behind him watching the microwave timer intently.

Lonnie pulls out the first bag when the timer goes off and puts a second one in to start popping before pulling out a bowl to dump the popcorn into. She hands it to Jay without a word, stealing a handful first before heading into the lounge.

The girls are already there, of course, staring at Jane and the frankly outrageous pile of blankets and pillows she had gathered from a closet down the hall.

Actually. That gives Lonnie an idea.

“Jane!” She whisper-shouts, moving her hand slowly to get her roommate’s attention. “We should build a blanket fort!”

Jane’s face is blank for a few seconds and then bursts into a manic grin. “Yesss. I’ll go get Doug.”

Lonnie laughs at the confused faces of the transfer students as Jane leaves for the boys dorm. “Doug has a badge. Also like a million cousins, all of whom take assembling structurally-sound buildings very seriously.”

Evie raises her hand from her chosen spot on one of the couches. “What ... is a blanket fort? Or, no, that seems obvious, a fort made of blankets. But why would someone need a fort made of blankets? That’s seems ... ineffective.”

Jay is nodding as he devours handfuls of popcorn while perched on the backrest of the couch. “Not very secure. Blankets are too easy to get through, they don’t offer enough protection.”

“Plus who has that many blankets.” Carlos says quietly, and Lonnie glances at the younger boy whose gaze hasn’t left the pile of bedding.

Lonnie doesn’t really know how to answer that, given how her assumptions about cookies had turned out, so she just shrugs. “It’s like a game, kids build forts made of blankets and have sleepovers, and then it’s easy to disassemble the next morning.”

That gets a slow nod from Mal, and Lonnie sighs internally. At least that makes sense to the Isle kids.

“They don’t want to build something more permanent that will take too long to clean up when their parents decided to get rid of it.”

That ... wasn’t exactly what Lonnie was going for, and the others are nodding along in understanding at Mal’s statement, which makes Lonnie uneasy for a reason she can’t quite put her finger on. But it is technically true, so she lets it slide.

Instead she moves to the pile and starts handing out blankets and pillows until Jane gets back, a confused Doug in tow. He glances around at the lounge, and Lonnie takes pity on him.

“We’re building a blanket fort. They’ve never built one before. Jane, you didn’t even tell him why you were dragging him from his room, did you?”

Jane shrugs at her. “I told him we needed his help.”

Lonnie sighs. Close enough. She turns to Doug. “So, dwarf-master-of-blanket-fort-construction. Where do we start?”

He scans over the blankets and pillows before turning to take in all the furniture they had in the lounge. “Okay, first things first. We need to move the couches.”

Following Doug’s instructions, with the transfer kids — especially Carlos — chipping in with some unique suggestions once they catch on to what the others are trying to accomplish, they slowly turn the room into the most defendable blanket fort that Lonnie has ever seen. Forty minutes later they finally shove the leftover blankets and all the pillows through the front entrance and bring the popcorn bowls with them as they crawl through the entranceway.

“Now what?” Mal is curled next to Evie, having claimed one of the purple blankets as her own and draped a blue one over the other girl like a cape.

Doug, sitting next to Carlos who is bundled into two fuzzy black-and-white blankets courtesy of Jane and Evie, hums quietly as he thinks, and Lonnie tries to remember what games there are in the cupboard down the hall.

Jane is the one who comes up with the answer, though, looking content in her light pink blanket that she shares with Doug’s feet anyway after he had turned down needing his own blanket. “Apples to Apples?”

Lonnie grins as Doug agrees, nodding her support. “I’ll go get it. Someone explain how to play.”

She crawls past Jay, sitting sentry near the door sans-blanket but still holding one of the popcorn bowls, stands back up as soon as she clears the fort’s entrance, and heads down the hall to get the requested game.

This was going to be Fun.


	8. Lashing Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TWs for the Isle's ideas of crimes that deserve punishment (although the punishments are not very descriptive) as well as a mild flashback description.
> 
> There's also some ranting and raging and mild destruction of property.

Evie watches from her seat at her sewing machine as Mal paces angrily through their room, trying — and failing — to get her brilliant green eyes to return to their normal grey. At least they had managed to make it out of Goodness class before she went dragon, although it had been a close call.

“I can’t believe that — that fairy! She doesn’t even — of course we know —” Mal can’t make a full sentence through her rage, but Evie knows exactly what she’s trying to say anyway.

Remedial Goodness is exhausting. Fairy Godmother keeps treating them like idiots, talking like they’re babies who can’t understand the questions, who don’t know that of course the right thing to do is feed a crying baby a bottle.

It was the only answer that would have brought the wrath of their parents and the other villains down on them if they had tried it on the Isle of the Lost. You have to know what the ‘good’ thing to do is before you can avoid doing it, just like the Auradon kids probably learned all about evil deeds at their parents' knees so they could know what Not to do.

Evie had had fun the first few days messing with Fairy Godmother and playing up the Evil Villain Kids card. So had Jay and Carlos, although they found themselves more easily distracted from focusing on their schoolwork. That wasn’t new, though, Jay had always hated sitting still for longer than ten minutes.

But after two weeks of the same inane questions over and over, they were reaching the end of ‘fun prank’ and approaching ‘obnoxious drivel’ territory. Mal had just been the first one to lose her cool.

Evie knew why, too. All of them did.

The question that had brought class to a smashing close was simple — If you see a overturned barrel of apples spilled on the ground, do you:

A. Push the barrel down the street

B. Help to pick the apples up

C. Throw the apples at passing cars

D. Steal the apples for yourself

Mal had tensed as soon as she heard the question, pencil stilling against the sketchbook pages. Evie had seen the faraway look in the purple-haired girl’s eyes, and sneaking a glance over at Carlos and Jay, they had noticed it too.

Fairy Godmother, of course, did not.

She continued reading out the answers, and waited expectantly to hear if they would give her the correct one. Only one or two correct answers per class, usually, just to keep things interesting.

There was silence while the other three watched Mal, barely daring to breath. Evie had taken her hand and slowly nudged the other girl’s pinkie when she didn’t seem to be pulling herself back from the memory that had consumed her.

Evie had heard the story of the little fae who had dared to help a goblin pick up a basket of fallen apples. Mal hadn’t known any better, she had been so young. But she had learned quick. Maleficent had made sure of that.

Kicking the apples back down the street had only been for the public’s benefit. The young fae had been punished once they were safe from prying eyes, as well.

Mal’s breath caught as she was forced back into the present at Evie’s touch, and she let out a slow exhale. Fairy Godmother must have thought it was a noise of realization or something, though, because she had turned to Mal expectantly.

Mal had snapped. “Kick it down the fucking street so you don’t end up locked in your fucking room for a fucking week.”

Oh, sweet evil. Evie had stayed behind to do damage control as Mal had stormed out of the classroom, Jay and Carlos on her heels and watching her back.

Once she had brought the shocked headmistress down to ‘detentions’ instead of ‘expulsion back to the isle’, Evie headed for her room. She hoped her sewing machine would survive Mal’s fury, even if she could probably coerce Carlos into fixing it for her. He had built it from spare scrap parts in the first place, after all.

Mal was fuming, but aside from some scattered books and a broken picture on the wall, the physical damage had been kept on the light side. Evie had decided it was probably safer to sit quietly and let Mal get it out of her system as her eyes flashed in the daylight streaming through the windows.

As her roommate slows down her pacing and angry muttering, Evie picks up her design book and begins sketching a new dress for Jane that she had been thinking of during class since the eminent destruction of all their belongings seemed to be past.

And Jane seriously needed a new outfit. Something without a bow on it, unless Jane actually liked them. Evie can always add one on later.

Mal flops down onto her bed with a long choked-off scream, and Evie glances up from her sketch to find the purple-haired girl watching her. “Feel better?”

She nods slowly. “Fuck. How pissed is she?”

Evie waves a hand lazily. “I got her down to a week’s worth of detentions. The Auradon kind, writing lines and ‘thinking about your actions’ and all that shit, so it’ll be boring but doable.”

Mal sighs. “Thanks, E.”

“Of course, M.” Evie responds, hesitant to add the next part of an Auradon custom that they had seen Lonnie, Jane, Ben, and Doug all use so casually. “That’s what ... friends are for.”

She sees Mal stiffen slightly but relax a few seconds later. “Still. I owe you. What’re you designing?”

Evie accepts the abrupt change in conversation and lets out an internal sigh of relief that Mal hadn’t seemed bothered by the word. At least no more than the rest of them were, even following such a explosion of emotion.

She dutifully picks up her project book and moves to lay next to Mal on her bed, content to talk about the designs and other ideas for the Auradon kids as a continuing distraction during the rest of the disastrous class period they were skipping.


	9. Confession

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TWs for nervousness about being sent back to the Isle, Auradon Prep's dumb gender-sports rules, and also potentially being worried about not knowing how to swim, although no real panic or anything.
> 
> Doug wanted a turn in the narrator seat. I only corral them into following the prompt. When I can.

As many nerds before him, Doug hates gym class. Running wasn’t really his thing. Or tourney. Or fencing. Or any physical activity, really.

He much preferred sitting down with a nice book. Even homework was better than gasping for breath in front of a bunch of jocks. Because of course gym class is seperated by gender, so Doug doesn’t even have Jane or Lonnie to talk with.

Auradon Prep can be so backwards sometimes. Lonnie complains about it frequently, not that Doug can blame her. They have all raged about the dumb rules concerning girls not being allowed to join fencing and other teams on her behalf more than once.

At least now, Jay and Carlos are in gym with him. Carlos is a delight to talk to, with a love of knowledge that Doug shares and is always happy to talk about. Jay rolls his eyes at them chattering away but never strays far, keeping a watch on them that had confused Doug at first.

He had eventually come to realize that the transfer kids always kept an eye out for each other when they were in the same place. Carlos did the same even as he talked with Doug, keeping Jay in his sights at pretty much all times unless Jay had run off to race Chad or Ben, then only relaxing when the older teen reappeared in his line of sight.

They had just finished a segment on fencing, which Doug had actually passed easily with pointers from both Jay and Carlos, much to his surprise. Carlos had shrugged and mumbled something about pirates when Doug had wondered aloud how they were so good. He had decided against asking any further questions.

Coach Jenkins, who of course doubled as the gym teacher along with coaching tourney, announced that they were going to start the swimming segment next week, and Doug saw both the VKs stiffen slightly. Not enough that anyone else would notice, but Doug had always been more observant than the average student or teacher.

He waits until after he’s changed out of his sweaty gym clothes before sidling up to Jay, who is lounging near the bathroom that Carlos had disappeared into to change his own clothes. He would have looked almost bored to the casual observer, but Doug saw through that to the tension that had been running through both boys since they had all put their swords back in the equipment closet.

“Hey, Jay.” He says as he walks over, knowing he would never be able to sneak up on any of the transfer kids but still wanting to give verbal warning of his approach. True to form, Jay merely flicks his eyes over in his direction with zero surprise.

“Hey Doug.” The forced-casual tone almost makes Doug wince, but he keeps his expression smooth as he leans against the other wall across from Jay.

“You, uh, you guys okay?” He asks quietly, and Jay glances past him to scan the mostly-empty locker room. Doug had purposely waited until everyone else had been close to leaving, though, and watches as Jay’s eyes follow the last person out the door, the latch clicking audibly in the silence.

“Yeah. ‘Course we’re okay. Why would you think that we’re not okay?”

Doug sighs. “Well, you’ve been shifting your weight from foot to foot incessantly, even if you’re not moving from that spot, indicating nervousness. Carlos has barely spoken a word since we finished with the swords, and kept tapping some sort of rhythm against his leg. I haven’t figured that part out yet. But you’re both tense as fuck, so what’s the problem?”

Jay’s eyes widen at his words, and Doug rolls his eyes. “Yes, I can curse too, you’re not special.”

Carlos snorts from the other side of the opening bathroom door, barking a laugh as he catches sight of Jay’s shocked expression. The other boy shuts the door quietly and moves past them to his locker, placing his gym clothes in before coming back to join them. Jay shifts his eyes from Doug to Carlos and back again, but he waits for Carlos before he speaks again.

“Listen. We don’t, um, we don’t know ... how to swim.”

Oh. Doug hadn’t been expecting that. Not that he’d been expecting some grand confession or anything. Although technically this counts as a confession, by the dictionary definition, ignoring the part about ‘committing a crime’, since that was an old-fashion usage. He blinks, not quite sure what to say, but the silence is broken by Carlos.

“Well, I can dog paddle. A little.”

The pun is not lost on Doug, and his lips quirk in response. Then he blurts out the first thing on his mind.

“Wait. But you grew up on an island.”

Jay rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t seem annoyed. “Yeah, with a barrier around it and clock-eating crocodiles swimming in the water.”

Oh. “That ... well that sucks.” Doug actually doesn’t mind swimming, although he burned easily so he generally prefers the school’s pool to the Enchanted Lake or other bodies of water. “Are you going to tell the Coach?”

Jay and Carlos both tense up again, and Carlos snorts softly. “Yeah right. Give them more ammunition against us? No way.”

Doug wonders who ‘them’ is, and Jay must read that on his face. “The teachers. Fairy Godmother. Anyone who might send us back.”

Oh. Of course they were worried about that. He wonders how he hadn’t noticed before, running over the interactions that the Isle kids had with adults. It seemed obvious now that Jay had pointed it out. The four of them caused chaos, sure, but only enough to be annoying, to get detentions, never crossing the line into expulsion or deportation.

They’re all quiet for a minute as Doug puts the puzzle pieces together, and then tries to come up with a solution.

“What if you learned before next week? How to swim.” He clarifies, and Jay raises disbelieving eyebrows at him. “It’s not hard, most of it is survival instinct. Your body will do most of the work.”

“Who would teach us? You?” Carlos asks, and Doug shrugs.

“If you want. We could probably ask Ben for help, he’s an excellent swimmer and he won’t judge you or anything. Or Lonnie, she’s really good too.”

Jay and Carlos share a look, some kind of unspoken communication passing between them that Doug didn’t manage to catch before it was over.

“Where? We can’t do it here.” Too public, were the unspoken words, and Doug agreed. The less eyes the better, for the Isle kids’ comfort.

“We can go to the Enchanted Lake. We’ll make a day of it, bring Mal and Evie along too, assuming they don’t know how to swim either.”

Carlos nods at the half-question, confirming that none of the VKs could swim, and Jay inclines his head too. “Okay. We’ll try this. But only you, Ben, and Lonnie.”

“And Jane.” Doug says, since inviting Lonnie but not Jane would be rude. Plus, Jane was good at setting people at-ease, and the transfers might need a bit of that bubbly goodness.

“And Jane.” Carlos and Jay agree, and Doug nods, heading towards the door with the others behind him. He needs to catch Ben before the day is over, if they’re going to make a whole day of the trip.

Jay calls his name, and Doug hums questioningly as he glances back at them. “Yeah?”

“Thanks. For, ya know, not making fun of us.” He mumbles quietly enough that Doug has to strain to hear it, as he slows down to walk next to the other boys.

“Of course. That’s what friends are for.”


	10. Crying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry there wasn't an update yesterday! Work was hell and I decided not to write/post while tipsy, because typos. So you'll get two chapters today instead! (After I write the other one lol)
> 
> TWs for cosmetic whitewashing, which was mostly an accident that I'm committing to now. Because the Evil Queen. Also I know almost nothing about makeup, so forgive any weird terms or descriptions.

Audrey hears the quiet sniffling as she swings open the door to the bathroom, and quiets her steps so she can see what girl is crying in the bathroom at 11 in the morning on a Tuesday.

There’s a privacy wall between the door and the sinks, so Audrey closes the door slowly instead of letting it slam shut like she normally does. Then she sneaks forward — hard to do in heels, but she’s had plenty of practice — and peers around the partition.

It’s Evie, standing at the far sink and washing away her makeup. It looks like she’s about to reapply it, judging by the spread of chipped and cracked containers on the counter next to her, but that’s not what catches Audrey’s attention.

The other girl is less pale than Audrey had thought. The makeup she wears makes her look really fair-skinned, but Evie’s actual skin color is a nice tan-bronze coloring. Audrey wonders who had taught her that she needed to be pale instead of highlight her natural beauty.

Evie patted her face dry and is reaching for the first container when Audrey can’t stop herself from speaking.

“Stop. What are you doing?” Evie jumps, and Audrey feels a little bad at the flicker of fear and shame in the other girl’s eyes.

“N-nothing. Just a l-little fixing up.” She stammers, scrubbing under her eyes as if to make sure all the traces of her tears are gone.

Audrey softens her voice from the harsh snap that she had gone into automatically, shaking her head. “No, I can see that. What I meant was, why are you trying to cover up your natural skin-tone with a cake of foundation?”

Evie quirks a perfect eyebrow at her, looking confused. “Because the fairest of them all has to be, you know, fair?”

Um, who the fuck had said that?

Apparently, her mother, when Audrey asks just as bluntly as her mind had supplied. The Evil Queen from Snow White’s story.

Snow, who had ‘lips as red as roses’ and ‘skin as white as snow’. Audrey was pretty sure that her natural skin color hadn’t had impact on the mirror’s choosing of ‘the fairest of them all’, since that wasn’t the only description of the word.

“Yeah, no. That’s stupid.” She walks up and leans against the counter next to the other girl, poking through her selection of makeup. All the jars were cracked and dirty, and none of the colors were correct for Evie’s skin. Audrey tests out the foundation Evie had been grabbing on her own darker skin and sees a streak of practically-pure-white against her arm. “Damn, she must have wanted you to look like a painted doll.”

“A princess must always look perfect for her prince.” Evie says quietly, and Audrey snorts softly. She had been taught the same thing, although she had at least gotten to take pride in her own skin.

“No princes in here, though. Just us princesses. So no, don’t put that shit back on. Here.” Audrey digs around in her backpack for her own makeup kit.

She pulls out her foundation and swipes a testing patch on Evie’s arm, given to her without a word when she motioned for it. It’s too dark for her, so Audrey taps some of the powder onto her chemistry textbook before taking the barest amount of Evie’s white powder and mixing the two colors. The textbook would be fine. This was more important.

The resulting lightened color looks much better, and Audrey passes the makeshift palette over to Evie to apply while Audrey looks through the bottles for the other girl’s blush, ready to repeat the process as needed.

“Why are the colors so weird?” Audrey doesn’t mean to ask it quite like that, but she has never seen these shades of makeup.

“Oh, we don’t really get new things on the Isle, so we’ve had to make our own cosmetics out of the mostly-empty jars that get sent over, usually mixing them with some natural ingredients.” Evie replies nonchalantly, and Audrey stares at her.

“You’ve never had a real set of makeup?” She can barely imagine that. Her mother had gotten her her first makeup kit when she was six, and they and grammy had spent all day playing around with the different products and colors.

“One like that? No.” Evie waves a hand at Audrey’s kit with its perfectly labelled bottles and creams, not a chip or crack in sight.

Audrey shakes her head a little. That’s just unacceptable.

“What are you doing tonight?”

Evie glances at her from the corner of her narrowed eye. “Umm ... homework, probably. Why?”

Audrey grins. “We’re going shopping.”


	11. PTSD

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TWs galore in this one, folks! Carlos has PTSD *surprise surprise* because Cruella is a crazy bitch and taskmaster. So there's anxiety/panic, and hyperventilation, and flashback-dissociation that isn't in detail.
> 
> Oh, and Cinderella also had/has PTSD because Lady Tremaine, so Chad is not unfamiliar with it (although they don't call it that) and can actually help Carlos in a productive way. Yay Chad!

It was late, just past midnight, and Chad thinks he’s the only person that would be in the kitchen of the boys dorm. He probably should have checked before pushing the swing door open with his hip, letting it bang against the wall with a thud.

There’s a yelp, followed by a crash. The sound of something glass shattering is loud in the following silence as Chad catches the door with his foot on its way back.

He doesn’t see anyone in the kitchen from where he stands, but as he moves to put the precarious stack of a week’s worth of plates and cups he’s holding on the counter, Chad catches sight of white and black two-toned hair crouching down by the sink.

Carlos.

The smaller boy is frozen, staring at what was probably a glass cup that had fallen and shattered on the floor when Chad had startled the villain kid.

Chad sets his stack of dishes down much quieter this time, even if the point is moot now. The damage had already been done. “Hey man, sorry about that. You okay?”

There’s no response, and Chad comes around the island counter to see that Carlos still hasn’t stood up or made any motion to clean up the glass. Instead he’s shaking slightly, hugging his arms to his chest, crouching amid the shattered glass.

“Carlos?” As he gets closer, stepping carefully to avoid the shards, Chad can see that the younger boy’s breathing has sped up to a worrying tempo, lips opening in gasps that would sound loud in the silence but didn’t simply because the De Vil kid seemed incapable of making any noise at all. “Hey, Carlos?”

Chad slides around so he’s in front of him, trying to catch the other boy’s eyes. Carlos just stares past him, but he flinches when Chad slowly reaches out a hand to see if he can shake the boy out of his panic.

Seeing Carlos with his arms raised in front of his face, protecting his head from an attack, reminds Chad of his mom. Ella had had similar panic attacks sometimes, when she would break a plate while washing dishes or forget to pick something up from one of the stores that catered to the queen’s wishes to shop for her family instead of sending a servant.

Chad had asked her what happened the first time he had been there when she froze, after he had been sent away and his father fetched to calm his wife. She had sighed as she tucked him into bed, and told him about being the servant for her stepmother Lady Tremaine. Mom had said she had been punished for breaking things or forgetting a chore, although she hadn’t said how and Chad had never asked.

He did know what to do to help her snap out of her panics after that, and Chad hopes maybe Carlos will respond the same way.

”Hey, it’s okay, Carlos, you’re okay.” Chad backs up, talking softly the entire time. “Let’s get this glass cleaned up, okay? Then there’s no more mess. Does that sound like a good plan?”

Chad finds the broom and dustpan and begins sweeping up the glass, piling it in one section away from the other boy. He’ll have to wait to get the area under Carlos after the boy moves. He peeks over at him and sees that his arms have dropped to settle around his knees, fingers tapping on his legs. But his shaking has lessened a little, so Chad keeps going until he’s got all the glass he can reach and dumps the dustpan out into the trash.

“Hey buddy, see? All cleaned up, no more glass. Well, mostly. No reason to panic.” Chad crouches down in front of Carlos again, careful not to touch. “You’re okay. Just breathe, okay? In and out, follow my breaths, in ... and out ...”

He’s starting to wonder if he maybe should have gone and gotten Jay, or maybe Evie, when suddenly Carlos takes an audible inhale instead of the silent-albeit-slowing breathes he had been using. Chad’s own exaggerated breath gets caught in his throat in surprise, but he’s careful not to reach forward as Carlos begins coughing, curling in on himself even more.

“I’m s-s-sorry, I’ll c-clean it up, I’m so s-s-sorry.” The stuttering apologies come through faintly, and Chad wonders who he’s apologizing to. Maybe his mother? He’d heard Cruella was off her rocker.

“It’s already clean, it’s okay, Carlos, you’re okay.” Chad repeats yet again, and this time sees brilliant brown eyes peek over red-and-white-covered knees at him.

“C-Chad? What are y-you doing here?” The confusion in his eyes just goes to show how deep the De Vil boy had been in his mind if he hadn’t even known Chad was there.

“Hey, Carlos. I was just bringing dishes down to put in the dishwasher. How ya feelin’?” Chad blames the late hour and adrenaline rush for the bad grammar that a prince should never use, but decides Carlos probably wouldn’t tell on him.

“Um ... Tired.” Carlos blinks and seems to wilt against the counter where he had been curled.

“Yeah, I bet. Can I help you get up? There’s still a few pieces of glass that need to be swept up.”

Carlos nods after he looks around carefully, seeing the broom and dustpan Chad had laid on the ground behind him and putting the pieces together with that smart brain of his. He goes to stand but his knees don’t want to unbend from their curled position and Carlos hisses a little as he slumps back against the counter.

“Here, can I touch you? Just to help you up.” Chad clarifies as he gets a suspicious squint in return, and then gets a slow nod in consent. He shifts to Carlos’ side and gets one hand around his back and the other under his knees, lifting carefully before the other boy can do more than tense and grab behind Chad’s shoulder with his hand.

Chad sets him on the island counter, on the far side from his stack of dishes. They don’t need any more spills tonight. He picks up the broom and finishes sweeping the last of the glass, aware of Carlos’ eyes following him the entire time.

He’s putting the broom back when the other boy finally speaks again. “Why did you do that?”

“What, clean up the glass? That was how we would help my mom get back out of her own head after something happened to make her panic. There was a mess, which was Capital-B Bad, so I would clean it up so it would be there anymore to worry her. No mess means no reason to panic about what her stepmother might do, even with her being trapped on ...” Chad trails off, not wanting to mention the Isle after recent events, but Carlos is nodding in understanding, tapping his fingers on his knees as he watches Chad load the dishwasher and start it.

“That makes sense. But, uh, why did you help me? Is what I meant.” Carlos blushes as Chad glances at him, confused. “I’m a Villain Kid.”

“Yeah, and I’m the idiot who scared the fuck out of you by opening the door and causing you to drop the glass. Plus, it was the right thing to do. Are you telling me that Mal or Jay or Evie would have found you like that and not done anything, because they’re ‘evil’?”

Carlos squirms under Chad’s raised-eyebrow expression, muttering something about Isle Kids watching out for their gang, which Chad is not even going to ask about right now. It is too late for that conversation, it's bedtime after all this anxiety. He normally would wait to unload the dishwasher too, but makes a mental note to apologize to the kitchen staff the next morning. He hates leaving a job half-done for other people to finish, but Carlos is yawning and Chad finds himself following suit after a second.

“Okay, down you get. Time for bed.” Chad reaches to help Carlos down but the other boy slips away and laughs when Chad is left grasping at air. They leave the kitchen and Chad walks them back to Carlos and Jay’s room. Carlos hovers with his hand on the doorknob, looking at Chad and shifting on his feet.

“I won’t tell anyone. Don’t worry.” He sees the relief that flashes across the other boy’s face, and knows he guessed correctly as to what had been bothering him. “Good night, Carlos. Sleep well.”

“Good night, Chad. And, um, thanks.” The door opens and closes almost quicker than Chad’s tired eyes can track, and he heads back to his and Doug’s room with a chuckle and another yawn.

It is way past his bedtime, even though he doesn’t know if he'll be able to sleep after all of that. He definitely has some new perspective to think about regarding the Villain Kids and the Isle they had been trapped on.


	12. ESA Pet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TWs for anxiety, as well as general Isle Trauma and Cruella being, well, a crazy abusive bitch. Also, brief mention of the bear-traps in her closet (from the books).
> 
> Also featuring Jay being endlessly shocked at how naive Ben is. Because seriously, Ben? Even movie!Chad has a better handle on the VKs than Ben does. And I love writing snarky-internal-thoughts Jay.

Jay sidles up to Ben after tourney practice one afternoon, waiting until Carlos had left with the campus mutt shadowing him. It had only a few days since Ben had introduced Dude to Carlos, even with their rocky beginning, and Carlos hadn’t let Dude out of his sight for more than a few minutes.

To say that Jay was suspicious is ... well, accurate. He’s extremely suspicious.

That’s why he’s talking to Ben. Mostly because Ben can’t lie. Like, at all. It’s almost pathetic, how honest and naive the prince is.

“Hey, Ben.”

The future king looks up and gives Jay a brilliant smile, completely unconcerned by being alone with a Villain Kid.

“Jay! Hey buddy, how are you?” Sweet Evil, this guy.

Jay lounges against the locker and gives Ben his best unimpressed look. “What’s the catch?”

“What do you mean?” Ben looks confused, which is just typical.

“The dog. Letting him hang around Carlos. Why? Did you put a tracking spell on him? Trying to keep tabs on the Villain Kids? Or are you testing Carlos, to see if he’ll snap like Cruella? Because he won’t, Carlos is nothing like that crazy bitch.”

Ben looks shocked at the very idea, but Jay is searching his face for any hint of acting or deception. He finds none.

“What? No! Look, Carlos had never met a dog, right? He was absolutely terrified, he thought Dude was going to eat him!”

Jay nods, well aware of the things Cruella had told Carlos that were probably lies — but it’s not like they had any dogs on the Isle to prove her statements wrong. Only the occasional drunken reminiscing of her old henchmen Horace and Jasper gave any hint that dogs were not vicious pack animals that would gobble the De Vil boy up, or any of the rest of them for that matter.

“Yeah, ‘course he did. His mom is crazy, remember?” Jay crosses his arms, still unimpressed with the other boy’s defense. “So, what’s the catch?”

“There isn’t one.” Ben holds up a hand this time to keep Jay from speaking. “Look, you saw how well they bonded. Carlos loves that dog.”

Jay shudders a little at the L word, but can’t disagree that Carlos certainly cares for the dog. He had gotten Evie to make the dog matching clothes, Dude was practically another member of their gang already.

“Plus, I was thinking about getting Dude certified as an ESA for Carlos.”

A what?

“Emotional Support Animal.” Ben supplies, as if that’s supposed to make any more sense than the acronym. “An animal who is trained to help their owner if they get stressed or have a panic attack or nightmare or something, the dog can help snap them out of it by, like, barking for another person or licking or something. At least, from what I’ve read.”

Jay had stiffened halfway through Ben’s rambling. How had he known? He, Mal, and Evie always cover for Carlos when he’s ... not quite there, they’ve had plenty of practice. They had thought the Auradon Kids hadn’t noticed.

All of them are a little fucked up, of course, but Carlos definitely had it worse on the Isle, and they never begrudged him his quirks or panics. Hell, if Jay had lived with Cruella for even a month he would have been seriously messed up, too. Carlos holds himself together way better than Jay would in the same situation. Even just seeing the aftermath is enough to make him wish they had gotten the other boy away from her sooner.

Ben is still prattling on, something about therapists, whatever those are, when Jay breaks out of his thoughts. He has to make sure.

“So. It’s not a trick. He can keep Dude? You won’t, like, take him away if we, like, fail a test or something.” Carlos wouldn’t, he was too smart, but punishing an innocent for the failures of an ally was a favored tactic on the Isle.

Ben looks like the idea had never even crossed his mind. It probably hadn’t. Seriously, this guy.

“Of course not! Especially once the paperwork goes through, then Carlos can even take him to class with him, or the hallways of the school.”

And Jay finally remembers where Ben might have caught on to Carlos’ anxiety. The second day of classes, they had all been assigned lockers for their school books. Someone had slammed a locker shut right next to Carlos as Ben was handing them slips of paper that had the combinations to their assigned lockers. As if Jay needed a piece of paper to get a simple dial lock open.

Carlos had frozen, breath spiking up noticeably, and the girls had immediately moved to flank him, to steady him with their arms as discreetly as they could while Jay took all their papers from the prince with a clap on his back and led Ben down the hallway.

Carlos told them afterwards that it had sounded like the snap of the bear traps that Cruella used to protect her closet of precious furs, and Evie had shuddered. She remembered that closet too.

But Ben’s insistence that Carlos could bring Dude into the hallways of Auradon Prep was a sure giveaway that he had noticed something that day. Jay and the girls would have to be more careful, more vigilant.

Jay nods and walks off, satisfied with his interrogation, leaving Ben standing by the lockers as he goes to find Mal to share the new intel he had gathered.

And maybe the mutt would help. It couldn’t hurt to try, already Carlos had seemed more relaxed when holding the dog. Besides, if anyone tried anything funny with Carlos or Dude — the rest of the VKs would be there to stop them.


	13. Baking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter this time, sorry. But no TWs! Although brief mention of the VKs stashing food in their rooms, since they still have the mentality of 'who knows when my next meal is'. Which is fair, considering where they grew up.
> 
> Also I love writing how the Isle kids still don't know the names of half the things the AKs take for granted. Like brownies, and orange juice.

Mal is browsing the kitchen’s pantry when she hears voices. She has to force herself to not move into the shadows to hide. She has permission to be here.

She might not have permission for the pile of cans and granola bars that she’s zipping into her bag to hide from view, but having permission for everything takes the fun out of it. Besides, the food stashes they kept in their rooms were running low. If the school didn’t want them to take advantage of free food, they should lock their cupboards better. Or at all, really.

The voices get closer as Mal swings her bag over her shoulder and pretends to be looking through the fridge when the door swings open.

“Hey Mal, wha’cha doin’?” Lonnie’s chipper voice comes from behind her, and she grabs the first bottle of juice she sees and brings it with her as she shuts the door.

Lonnie and Jane are moving through the kitchen, and Mal shrugs. “Wanted a drink. What ... are you doing?”

“Oh, orange juice!” Jane reaches into a cupboard and pulls down three glasses. “Can we have some, too?”

Mal squints at the juice in her hand. They call it ‘orange juice’. Because ... it’s orange. Damn these people are boring.

She pours some into the three glasses that Jane sets up for her, and puts it back into the fridge. Cold drinks are still a little weird, and Mal purses her lips to combat the chill as she takes a sip.

“We’re baking brownies, want to help?”

Lonnie is pulling out a mixing bowl and glass pan as she talks, and Jane ducks into the fridge and starts pulling containers out.

“And those are?” Mal mutters as she takes a container of what is apparently eggs from Jane when she tries to hold three things at once, and the younger girl gives her a blinding smile.

She turns to set the eggs down and finds Lonnie staring at her. Again.

“You’ve never had brownies?” Mal just shrugs, and watches as Lonnie taps the counter to get her roommate’s attention. “Jane. She’s never had brownies before.”

Jane’s eyes get huge and she’s off, chattering about brownies and other baked goods and how delicious they all are. Mal shares a small smirk with Lonnie, who watches Jane talk with a fondness that Mal still isn’t used to seeing on a person’s face.

“They’re basically — no, I actually have no idea how to describe them.” Lonnie says once Jane has gone back to digging for measuring cups in a drawer. “It’s mostly chocolate. But we’ll make them, and you can have some! We’ll share with Evie and the boys, too.”

“Oh, I don’t want to take your food.” Mal says, not wanting to be indebted to the girls.

“Oh, we want to share. We were going to leave them for everyone to eat anyway, we don’t need to eat an entire pan ourselves.” Jane pipes up with an earnest smile.

“Okay. If you’re sure.” She says slowly, watching their faces carefully for a trick. But this is Auradon, and they seem to be sincere. Of course they do.

“We are.” Lonnie announces like the matter is closed. “Can you grab the chocolate chips?”

Mal heads for the shelf they had been on when Lonnie had first introduced the little morsels of chocolate to them, and brings the container with her to the counter where the other girls have everything set up.

“Okay, what’s next?”

Brownies, Mal discovers, are in fact delicious. She’s definitely teaching the others how to make them, she thinks, as she licks a spoon that’s covered in batter while they wait for the pan of liquid chocolate to cook in the oven. Carlos will adore them.


	14. Road Trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so there's only talk about a road trip. But that counts. (I'm not super great at staying on-prompt lol)
> 
> But hey, no TWs! Just soft Auradon boys being soft and snarky and planning a trip for everyone.

Ben knocks on the door to Doug’s room, hoping the dwarf kin would be there. He needed to run an idea by him.

“Hey, Doug,” Ben starts as soon as the door opens. “You’ve been camping, right?”

He looks up to find Chad blinking at him. “Hey, Ben. Uh, Doug should be back in just a minute, he usually gets back from his science club at 5:18.”

Ben looks at his watch. It’s 5:16.

“Do you want to come in?” Chad motions him inside, and Ben follows. He sits in one of the chairs at a desk that he thinks belongs to Chad, if the scattering of fabric pieces and paper scraps with outfit sketches are anything to go by. Chad is good at his designs, most of Auradon Prep has at least one outfit from his unofficial fashion label — Ella’s Charming Attire — even if only a few seamstresses in Auradon City will make the clothes for them on the sly.

He should introduce him to Evie. Well, they already know each other. But the clothing part. Evie sews, Chad sews, they could talk about fabric and stuff.

“So, uh. What were you saying about camping?” Ben looks over at Chad, sitting back on his bed with an unopened textbook in his lap.

“Oh. I was thinking about taking the transfer kids on a road trip! We could go up to Fortuna Falls, maybe do a hike, go camping!”

“Doug has a badge in s’mores.” Chad says absentmindedly, flipping through his textbook.

“I ... Wait, how do you get a badge in s’mores? I want one! Nevermind. I know he goes camping with his family all the time. I thought maybe he would want to come. You can come too, if you want? We can invite Audrey and Lonnie and Jane, too!”

Chad raises an eyebrow and Ben realizes he’s talking loudly, hands moving through the air in his excitement. He can go a little overboard sometimes.

“Slow down there, champ.” Chad drawls. “Get Doug to say yes, first. I’m sure he will, though.”

“Sure I will what?” Doug’s voice comes from open door, and Ben checks his watch. It was 6:18.

He glances over at Chad, impressed, and Chad smirks at him with a shrug.

“He wants to take the VKs camping.”

“I love camping! My uncles used to take us all the time. I have a badge in making s’mores.” Doug sets his backpack down on his bed, and Ben grins at him in excitement.

“That’s what Chad said! I’m sure they’ll love s’mores! We’ll get the girls to come too, so we’ll need two tents. Mal, Evie, Jane, Lonnie, and Audrey in one tent, and us three and Jay and Carlos in the other! I can ask Mrs. Potts to pack us a picnic to take on the hike!”

Ben stops talking sheepishly at a cough from Chad.

“Nevermind the rest of us. Have you asked the VKs if they even want to go camping?”

Oh. OH.

Ben blushes and Chad rolls his eyes. “Of course you haven’t. Okay, point of order. First, ask the VKs.”

“Don’t call them that.” Ben hates the acronym, he doesn’t want Mal and the others to be constantly reminded of their parentage.

“Okay, fine. First, ask the transfer students if they want to go camping or hiking or anything you’re planning.” He begins ticking off numbers on his fingers. “Second, ask them if they want us and Lonnie and Jane and Audrey to come. Third, ask Lonnie and Jane and Audrey. Fourth, food and snacks and tents. Details to follow. We’ll make a list.”

Ben nods along with this plan. Chad has always been good at strategizing, ever since they were kids. He manages to corral Ben’s wild ideas into something resembling a good plan, even when he doesn’t want other people to think he’s smart for whatever reason.

“So you’ll come?” Ben waves a hand at Chad’s incredulous expression. “Yes, yes, I know. First ask Mal and the others. Four steps, details to follow, I heard you.”

“Ben. Focus.” Doug snorts, and Chad throws one of those embroidered day pillows that no one actually uses at him. “Shut up, Doug. We’re making a very important game plan. You get to help, once we get to the camping supplies section, because Ben will forget everything and I’ve never been camping before.”

Ben stares at him. “You’ve never been camping? Ever?”

Even he had been a few times, usually with the other princes on ‘adventure times’ weeks over the summers. Thinking back, though, he doesn’t remember ever seeing Chad during any of them. Huh.

He had even gone once or twice with his parents, when they could make a get-away vacation for a day or two. Although that had been more like luxury camping, with fancy food and lush mattresses. But it was the thought that counted, right?

“No, the Duke doesn’t think it’s a suitable activity for a prince.” Chad rolls his eyes at his grandfather’s insane rules, and Ben agrees with the sentiment. A lot of the grandparent generation has old-fashioned ideas that the teens try their best to placate without giving in to entirely.

Well, mostly. Ben’s grandfather Maurice’s insane rules are more along the lines of ‘don’t leave the torch welder on top of the microwave’ and other practical-if-unusual adages that only make sense to the inventor.

“Okay, great! We have a plan! I’m gonna go find Mal and the others! I’ll text you when they say yes!”

Ben heads out the door, waving away Chad’s mutter of “If, Ben, not when. Don’t force them to say yes!”

Why would they say no? This was going to be so much fun.


	15. Campfire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy, sorry for being gone for so long! My brain was mush for like four days, and anything I would have tried to write would have been 100 percent depressing angst. So, sorry for that, but hey, this is only a little angsty?
> 
> TWs for more discussion of parental expectations for their children (mostly on the AK side of things), but now the VKs know that everything isn't perfect in Auradon and hey, maybe they're all not so different after all! Because generational gaps are really fun *Lily says sarcastically* and (grand)/parents can try their best while also being totally controlling and wanting mini versions of themselves. And trying to struggle out from under that is hard. But the kids have each other.
> 
> Also featuring sword fighting practice, which i know very little about aside from devouring Tamora Pierce books as a child/young adult, so. Grain of salt for any terminology and what-not.

Doug is in charge of the campfire, which is fine with him. He doesn’t really trust any of the rest of his fellow Auradon kids with fire.

Except maybe Lonnie. The Generals’ daughter knows her survival skills.

She had been tasked with helping Ben put up the tents, though. Which really consisted of Lonnie and Mal and Audrey putting together the tents while Ben tried to stop Jay and Carlos and Chad from fight each other with the tent poles. And then getting distracted when the Villain Kids were so much better and demanding that they give the Auradon Kids pointers. So putting up the tents had been delayed.

Doug had been dragged into the impromptu lesson after he put the foil dinners — hot dogs and diced potatoes and carrots wrapped in foil, created in the castle kitchens by the staff because Ben is really a rich city boy at heart — on the fire to cook.

He had protested, saying he wouldn’t need sword lessons, but Carlos had firmly wrapped a hand around his arm and tugged, pulling both him and an equally-reluctant Jane over to the rest of the group. “You never know when you might need to fight your way out of a scuffle. Besides, it’s good exercise.”

Evie was patient as she gave him and Jane beginner tips on how to stand, how to hold the sword — or tent pole section — how to do a simple parry and thrust. She was kind as she corrected Jane’s positioning, gentle as she held Doug’s hand up to straighten his grip. But she knew what she was doing, that was clear.

All of the kids from the Isle did.

Evie stepped away for a minute to help Jay demonstrate a set of maneuvers to Ben and Chad, and Doug took a break to watch them. They were sure and steady in their steps, matching each other effortlessly as they slowly moved through the positions as Jay explained them to the other boys.

Meanwhile, Mal was critiquing Lonnie’s stance, showing the already-proficient sportswoman the hole she was leaving on her left as she attacked with her right. Lonnie didn’t seem to mind the other girl’s sharper tongue, eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she adjusted her defense.

Carlos was more gentle with Audrey but still firm as he instructed the princess. She snapped at him a few times but he just raised an eyebrow and moved her to the correct stance. He gave her a small proud smile when she did a jab correctly, and she beamed back at him in a way Doug had rarely seen.

The impromptu session was put to an end when Doug checked the food and it was ready to eat, although Chad, Lonnie, and Ben were scheming to find a time for more practice when they get back to school.

Dinner was delicious, and Doug basked in the praise of his fellow students. It hadn’t been difficult, really, he had just set some pre-made foil packets on some flat rocks near a fire and made sure the food didn’t burn. But the VKs fell on them with delight, and even Audrey hadn’t complained at their appetites as she ate her own meal with enthusiasm, although the AKs at least used forks.

Now, though. Now it’s time for s’mores.

Doug pulls out the marshmallows, chocolate, graham crackers, and skewers, piling everything on a low table.

“Okay, here’s how you make the perfect s’more. First, we cook the marshmallows.” He continues explaining, and then they all huddle around the fire with their skewers, browning marshmallows — and accidentally catching a few on fire, which makes Mal cackle and Carlos and Chad flail in panic — and putting them on the supplied chocolate and crackers.

The Isle kids are instantly enamored, of course, Doug had been expecting that.

What he hadn’t been expecting is Chad’s and Audrey’s reactions.

“Oh my god,” Chad moans when he first takes a bite of his sticky sandwich, and his eyes shutter closed. “This is so good. Audrey. Try it.”

Doug is confused, but Carlos pipes up before he can. “Wait, you’ve never had one before either? But you live in Auradon.”

Chad waves a hand toward his mouth as he tries to chew before he can talk, and Audrey answers instead before taking her own bite.

“Our grandparents have strict ideas on what princes and princesses can do, and camping and s’mores are not part of that list.” She shrugs as Lonnie looks like she’s about to speak. “And our parents defer to them, so old-fashioned thinking and acting is what we show them. It keeps them happy.”

There’s a beat of silence, and Doug tries to process that. He knows Chad puts on a dumb act for the rest of the school — himself included, although Doug had seen through the act in two days — but he had never known why. This explains Audrey’s shallow ‘pretty pretty princess’ attitude, too, even though evidence to the contrary had been present from the beginning to Doug’s keen eye and even during the sword practice earlier.

“So, you have to follow all their rules? And pretend to be dumb and shallow and all that nonsense?” Mal cuts sharply into the silence, and Chad shrugs, leaning back against Audrey’s shoulder.

“It’s easier that way. My grandfather and Audrey’s grandmother have their minds set on the old teachings, they haven’t figured out that being the perfect prince is more than being charming and having people like you.”

“Or the perfect princess is more than being kind and a good dancer, looking for her prince.” Audrey chimes in with a roll of her eyes. “So we show them those ‘perfect’ people, and learn everything about our kingdoms we can on the sly so that we can be better rulers since things have changed so much in the twenty years since King Adam unified the kingdoms.”

“Pretty much everyone over a certain age doesn’t get how different things are now.” Jane says from her seat, and Lonnie squeezes her hand. “My mom has the same ideas, too.”

Doug had known that, had seen how the Fairy Godmother treated Jane like a child. It came from a place of love, he knew, but it still hurt the younger girl.

“Sweet evil.” Jay whispers, and Doug looks over to see him with one arm curled protectively around Evie. “And I thought our parents were stuck in their ways.”

“Well, not everything is perfect here. They just like to pretend it is. Just like they pretend children living on a prison is okay, instead of unjust and lazy on their parts.” Chad says with a shrug. “But we’re hopefully going to fix that, right, Ben?”

Ben had been silent, watching the discussion with shock and pain on his expressive face. “Yes. Yes, we are. And Chad, Audrey? I’m sorry you’ve had to do that.”

Audrey waves a hand. “It’s fine. It’ll be worth it, eventually.”

“Still.” Doug says, drawing all eyes to him. “You don’t have to pretend with us, anymore.”

Everyone nods along, and Mal rolls her eyes after a minute.

“Okay, enough of the mushy shit. Let’s get back to the s’mores.”

And with a few laughs and damp-sounding chuckles, that’s what they do.


	16. Protective

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, TWs for this one are some brief mentions of child abuse/bruises and panic attacks on the Isle, but nothing detailed.
> 
> Wrote this one over two days, but hey! Slowly getting back on track, sorry for the wait! And I promise I'm going to respond to all of your lovely comments if I haven't yet, and a big thank you to everyone who has commented/kudos'd/etc. You're all amazing.

Carlos pretends to still be sleeping when the whispering starts up.

“You’re protective of them.” That’s Chad, sleeping on the other side of Jay in the boys’ tent. Carlos keeps his breaths steady as he listens to Jay shifting against his back, turning presumably to face the prince. Doug is still asleep on Carlos’ other side, whistling a little as he breathes out and snuggles further into his own sleeping bag.

“Wha’d’ya mean?” Jay mumbles, and Carlos rolls his eyes. The other boy is still half-asleep, usually waking up just long enough for his subconscious to confirm a lack of threats in the immediate area. Carlos wishes he could do that, but once he’s woken up there’s no return to the land of dreams and nightmares for him.

“You. Well, and Mal. You’re both protective of them, of Carlos and Evie.”

Carlos flushes but doesn’t move, breath steady, and can feel Jay shrug his shoulders through the fabric of the blankets thrown haphazardly over the boys’ sleeping bags. “Yeah, so? We take care of our own.”

“You must have been friends for a long time.”

Both Isle boys flinch, although Carlos hopes Jay didn’t notice.

“We’re not friends.” There’s an awkward pause, and then Jay continues softly. “We don’t really have ‘friends’ on the Isle. We have allies.”

“So, you and Mal and the others are just ... allies?” That’s Ben, sounding confused.

Jay shrugs again. “Yeah. That’s how things go on the Isle. Protect your gang, defend your territory, share what you steal, try not to die.”

Those were the basic rules of life on the Isle, and everyone knew it. Jay knew it, Carlos knew it, Mal and Evie knew it.

Sometimes, though, Carlos wondered about friends. He heard the word tossed around at Auradon Prep all the time, and had studied the way kids who were considered ‘friends’ acted with each other.

A lot of times, friends seemed to act like a gang. They shared their food with each other, and had their own territories in the cafeteria. The boys on the tourney team laughed and joked in the locker rooms, and helped each other with homework during breaks.

Carlos looks at Auradon ‘friendship’, and remembers the Isle.

He remembers Evie, the first person he had talked to outside of his mother, when Cruella had needed to visit the castle to buy a new hair cream from the Evil Queen. Evie had stolen him away from behind his mother’s furs to ‘practice perfect posture’, but once away from their mothers the princess had laughed and shared a only-slightly-mushy peach with him. She hadn’t minded that Carlos hadn’t talked that day, a silent shadow for several more visits that she filled with her chatter and laughter. Evie had suggested ‘one tap for yes, two for no’ so he could contribute to their conversations when he didn’t feel like talking, even after he was comfortable around her, and given him creams and salves that helped heal his bruises.

He remembers Jay, a whirlwind of energy and constant motion, picking pockets and sharing his spoils with them all. One day Carlos had been staring at a stall in the market, and an hour later Jay had slid a handful of rusty gears and springs across the table at the hideout when they were procrastinating returning to their homes for the night. He had muttered something about ‘nothing better to steal, anyway’ but Carlos had known better, has spent the next day creating a tangle of bits and pieces that the thief fiddled with when his immeasurable energy needed an outlet in classes. He had helped flesh out their tapping system and hand motions, and they even transfered some of the signals into a silent language they could use on the streets.

He remembers Mal, stalking through the streets like she owned them but laying her claim only on him and Evie and Jay. Frequently stopping by Hell Hall to help him with his chores because she ‘had nothing better to do’, Carlos had worried less as he scampered through the streets getting Cruella’s wigs repaired and running other errands, knowing the dragon girl was watching his back. She had scared away many a potential bully in the streets and in the hallways, and he had made a sketchbook for her so that she would have a proper surface for all her art. Mal had been the first of the gang to find him in a panic, had coaxed him out of the corner of the mansion with a gentle voice she had later denied with a smirk.

They had helped him, had given him gifts, with no expectation of repayment beyond gang survival. He had returned the favor, of course — secreting some of Cruella’s food to the hideout for Jay or Mal when there was actually nothing to steal that week, building a sewing machine for Evie from pictures in a book. They told each other secrets and fears and even dreams, they had each other’s backs. They were the closest of allies.

Sometimes Carlos had thought the word ‘friend’ might apply, if friends weren’t a weakness.

But they are in Auradon now. Friends aren’t a weakness here.

Maybe — just maybe — they can become friends.


	17. Flashbacks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friends! Sorry it's been so long since I updated, I got distracted by completely reorganizing my room while my flatmate was out of town. I actually wrote this yesterday, but it was 11 at night when I finished and I had to be at work at 5 this morning, and I put off posting so I could sleep and still edit.
> 
> TWs for *surprise surprise* flashbacks, I'll give more specifics in the end notes if you would rather skip that section. Also, some more Isle abuse via flashback of the Evil Queen punishing Evie for being 'un-princess-like', as well as semi-OCD behavior and panic on Evie's part thanks to said preconditioning.

They all went for a hike the next morning, cleaning up their camping gear and putting it in the borrowed limo before heading to a waterfall that Ben and Jane knew about. Evie had been grateful for the warning about hiking before they left, allowing her (and Mal and Audrey) to pack shoes without heels.

Well, their boots still had a little heel, since Mal end Evie were used to romping all around the Isle in their sturdy ankle boots, and Audrey had apparently been wearing heels since she could walk.

The waterfall, called Fortuna’s Falls, was gorgeous. A hundred foot drop down to the river, the spray of the water’s impact hit them even as they stood on the bank, posing for selfies on their phones. Well, once Chad and Lonnie had shown them what a ‘selfie’ was, since they’d only had their phones for about a week and Carlos was the only one who was very good with technology.

Jay and Carlos decided to race up the trail to the top of the waterfall after they ate the picnic lunch that had been packed for them, and Lonnie, Ben, and Chad joined in the competition while Evie and the others made their way up in a more leisurely manner.

The trail was slightly muddy, and they had to pick their steps carefully on the damp ground. They’re about halfway up when Evie loses her footing, landing hard on her knees as she puts her hands out into the mud to avoid falling on her face.

“Oh, are you alright?” Evie hears Jane ask, but it sounds far away to Evie’s ears. She’s staring at her hands, heartbeat pounding loudly in her ears.

Her hands, her fingers, covered in mud.

She’s dirty. Mother is going to be so mad.

Princesses aren’t allowed to get dirty, to play in the mud. Princesses must always be clean, be poised, not a hair out of place.

She’s dirty, dirty, dirty. Mother will be furious. Princesses aren’t supposed to be dirty.

Mother had yelled at her the first time she had come back home covered in mud, five years old and not a care in the world. She had been yanked back outside, forced to wash with a bucket of cold water outside on the porch as mother told her she was a bad little girl, a bad princess. Mother had scrubbed her skin with rough cloth until it was raw, Evie crying silently because even then she knew loud sobs would get her no relief. She hadn’t been allowed outside for almost a week, since she obviously couldn’t be trusted to take care of herself. Her hands had hurt for days from the rough treatment.

Her hands ... her hands are dirty, and shaking. They’re not supposed to be shaking, princesses aren’t supposed to, aren’t supposed ... to ...

Her hands are still, she sees another pair of hands wrapping around them. Evie’s gaze travels up, pale arms to purple hair and grey eyes, lips moving but the sound far away.

“E ... kay, it’s ... tap?” It sounds like static, like the ancient radios on the Isle, but Evie watches as her dirty hands are turned until her fingers are free to press against the other girl’s. “Tap?”

Evie knows what she, what Mal, is asking, focuses all her energy and watches frame by frame as her pointer finger lifts and taps once against Mal’s palm.

The smile on Mal’s face is filled with relief, and she keeps murmuring soft assurances as Evie works her way back to the present, blinks past memories of her mother’s disappointed — but carefully blank, never scowling like Maleficent, because scowling causes wrinkles — expression that she had learned to read over sixteen years.

“Good, it’s okay, you’re going to be fine. Audrey is getting something to wipe the dirt away, okay Princess?” Evie taps once again against Mal’s hand, still too frozen to find her voice as she notices the others behind Mal for the first time. Doug and Jane are watching them with concern, and Audrey is digging for something in the bag that Chad had handed back off to her when he went to race the boys and Lonnie.

She finds what she’s looking for, ripping a packet open as she comes over and kneels carefully to avoid the patch of mud. Audrey reaches slowly for Evie’s right hand, and Mal passes it over so the princess can clean her hand with what looks like a little white cloth that is damp to the touch. Apparently she had two of the packets, because Mal has another of the conveniently-wet wipes in her own hand as she cleans Evie’s other hand just as carefully, both girls focusing to get every last bit of dirt off.

Jane takes the wipes after they finish, magic’ing them away with a concentrated flick of her wrist — taught to her by Mal, unbeknownst to her mother — as Doug offers a hand to Audrey and then takes her vacated spot.

He has a handkerchief, and wipes Evie’s cheeks to catch the tears she had apparently let fall during her frozen panic. “Hey there, Princess. Think you can get up on your feet now?”

She taps his hand once before remembering the Auradon kids don’t know their system of taps and signs, but Doug just nods and steadies her as he pulls her to her feet. He had probably caught on to at least some of their unspoken language, he was brilliant after all.

Audrey was helping Mal to her feet, and Evie clears her throat to get their attention.

“Thanks.” She says quietly, and Audrey nods, understanding in her eyes.

“Don’t worry about it. That’s what friends are for. Remind me when we get back to school and I’ll get some more wet wipes for you to keep in your bag. They’re like those makeup wipes we bought but for cleaning your hands, and anything else.”

Evie smiles at her in thanks. The little square wipes Audrey had bought her when they had gone shopping were amazing, much more effective than anything they had on the Isle.

Mal vocalizes her own thanks as she brushes at the knees of her purple pants, probably planning to have her own stash of wipes just in case. That was just the way Mal was, always taking care of her crew.

Jane sidles up to Evie, checking her over as Evie turns to face the young fae and coughs to get her voice back loud enough for Jane to hear.

“Are you, um, are you sure you’re okay?” She asks, and Evie smiles at the concern in her voice. Jane cares for everyone, even a group of misfit villain kids from the Isle, and that is one of the traits that Evie has grown to appreciate about the timid girl.

“Yeah, I’m okay now. I’m sorry if I worried you.” Evie’s gaze flickers over to Doug, to Audrey, as she extends her apology to the other Auradon kids as well. Doug shakes his head as he comes over to offer her his arm.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says, echoing Audrey’s earlier statement. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Now, shall we continue onward, princess?”

He motions on up the path, and Evie wraps her hand around his proffered arm. “Why thank you, kind sir. I suppose we shall.” She says in her poshest Auradon accent, and the other girls break into giggles at the act.

They all continue up the trail, careful to avoid any more mud puddles as they head to the top of the waterfall, to join the rest of their extending crew.

Or maybe, one day, the rest of their friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the spoilers/skipable section. Basically they go hiking and Evie trips in a mud puddle, and her dirty hands causes her to flash back to her mother punishing her for being dirty when she was little. If you want to skip the entire Evie-freaking-out section, you can read up to the paragraph starting with the dialogue 'Oh, are you alright' (that one's okay to read), and then skip the next 7 paragraphs until you get to the next dialogue sentence beginning 'E ... kay', and you should be past all the flashback!


	18. Hot Cocoa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... Okay, I have no excuse. Apparently it's like, December 10th already? Fuck, my dudes, time is Weird and I apologize for my almost-two-weeks hiatus. But I'm still going on this, and hopefully will finish it while it's still December. 'Comfortember' can totally count for both November and December, right?
> 
> Uh, no TWs on this one! Just a bit of the whole 'the Isle doesn't have Friends' shtick that the VKs are hopefully figuring out is not necessary.

Lonnie and Doug are making hot cocoa in the kitchenette after the camping trip while the rest of the crew pile onto the lounge sofas with blankets. Doug apparently has a secret stash of the Good Chocolate, which Lonnie is definitely going to take advantage of later.

With Doug’s permission, of course. Which he gives, because he is weak to her and Jane’s combined puppy eyes. And is a nice person in general.

Lonnie even adds peppermint sticks, since they’re going all out for the VKs. That was Audrey’s suggestion when she popped in to bring over the serving tray that some random student had left on the coffee table.

They put all the mugs on the tray — wiped off, of course, because crumbs — and bring it out to the lounge.

Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay are curled up on one of the sofas, Jay and Mal bracketing the others as Evie runs a hand through Carlos’ hair. Chad and Audrey are sitting on one of the loveseats looking at something on Chad’s phone while Ben and Jane had claimed the last sofa with just enough space for her and Doug to squeeze in.

Doug slides in next to Ben after handing Audrey and Chad their hot chocolates and giving his surprisingly-knowledgeable opinion on the jacket design his roommate offered a look of. Apparently slanted zippers are both Isle-hip and Auradon-sophisticated. Who knew.

“Here.” Lonnie hands over mugs to Mal and the others, and sits down next to Jane with their mugs and passes her roommate’s over. “Careful, it’s hot.”

The warning comes a little too late, from the gasp Carlos lets out after too big of a sip, and Evie giggles before reaching over to blow on his cocoa to cool it.

“Thanks, E.” Carlos says, and Lonnie watches as Mal and Jay both offer their mugs with matching pouts until Evie deigns to blow on their mugs too. She’s trying not to laugh but catches Ben’s eye and loses that battle. The prince is smirking, and Lonnie lets out a quiet chuckle that has Mal scowling over at her.

“What?” She shrugs. “You guys are adorable friends.”

The entire couch tenses as Mal and Jay shift uncomfortably. Mal pulls her arm away from around Evie’s shoulders as she breaks the silence. “We’re not friends.”

Wait, what?

“What do you mean?” Jane shares her confused look, and turns back to the VK couch. “You guys are always hanging out, and you help each other. You’ll do literally anything for each other. That’s, like, the definition of die-hard friendship.”

Carlos and Evie share a look Lonnie can’t understand as Mal and Jay stare around at the walls and floor, obviously uncomfortable with the conversation.

“Yeah, well. The Isle doesn’t do ‘friends’. They do allies.” Evie says quietly, shrugging.

“Why the fuck would people on the Isle not want to have friends?” Audrey says, sitting forward with furrowed eyebrows from her position cuddling into Chad’s side. “That’s fucking stupid, everyone needs friends.”

“Apparently the villains think friendship is weak.” Chad says, shrugging at Audrey’s raised eyebrows. “Allies are all about connections, deals, and having power in their gang.”

“You’re not on the Isle anymore, though.” Ben says, drawing all eyes to him with the ease of a future king. “You’re in Auradon now. You can be friends here.”

“The VKs don’t have to just be a gang.” Lonnie adds, rolling her eyes as Ben gives her a look. “By the way, do you mind being called VKs? Is that offensive?”

Jay gives her a look of his own. “Why would we mind that? Hell, we started the whole VK/AK business. We are the VKs.”

Lonnie smirks back at Ben as he starts trying to explain his reasoning — good-intentioned, as Ben always is, if a bit too worried about everyone’s feelings — and listens to Mal and the others assure him that it’s okay to call them ‘VKs’.

She notices Jane looking between them all talking easily, and pulls out her phone to a notepad app and types out a question before setting her phone in Jane’s lap.

>> Hey, everyone talking loud enough for you?

Jane reads the message and gives Lonnie a quick smile as she types her own response and passes the phone back.

>> Yeah, they are! Plus, Mal came up with a cool spell that lights up people’s auras when they start talking! Makes it easier to track the conversations. Don’t tell mom, though, Illegal Magic and all that.

Lonnie grins, and mimes zipping her lips as she gives Jane a quick side hug. That’s an awesome trick, and definitely a good one to have up her sleeve.

She tunes back into the conversation as she takes another sip of her cocoa. They’ve moved on to discussing the upcoming Tourney meet against the Lost Boys, and Lonnie jumps in with her own opinions on the strategy against their team.

They’ll give the VKs some time to get used to the idea of friends, it’s best to take these things slowly. Bonding time over hot chocolate is a good start.


	19. Memory Lane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnd, I'm back? I couldn't figure out who wanted to pov this section, I had Jane trying at first and then Mal took pity on me and took over instead.
> 
> TWs for some not-really slips of transphobia? Auradon is old-fashioned, but the kids are better about it. They're just trying to explain their parents' and grandparents' ideals, not agreeing with them. And hey, one of the few times the Isle is better than Auradon! Also, brief deadname mention of a third-party person, but just as an explanation and not in a cruel way. Hopefully.

Mal sits back and lets the conversation flow around her. She’s grateful that the AKs have let the whole ‘friends’ thing go, at least for the moment.

The whole concept makes her uncomfortable. A lot of things about Auradon make her uncomfortable.

She’s getting used to some of it, though.

Unlocked doors are still weird, even if the VKs mostly use the windows. Which the AKs still leave unlocked, like idiots.

The beds are better, even if Mal’s bed on the isle hadn’t been bad compared to others — perks of being the daughter of Maleficent — and the food is amazing.

All the rules are stiffling, but they’ve all gotten better at finding their way around them. Audrey, Chad, Doug, and Lonnie have been a surprising help, with useful tips on which hallways to avoid and where the cameras are. And a warning to not let Ben find out, because apparently the prince is a proper goody-goody.

Mal tunes back into the conversation as the AKs tell stories, pranks that they had pulled on other students. Lonnie asks if there was pranking on the Isle, and Mal shares a shark’s grin with Jay.

“Oh yeah. Jay and I were brilliant at them.” She sees Carlos and Evie share their own look. Remembers that so many of their pranks were on them, before she claimed them as her crew. “Well, okay, we were assholes.”

“It’s a fine line.” Chad says with a smirk, and Audrey smacks him on the shoulder. “Whaaaat? I’ve been the asshole, remember?”

“Still an asshole.” She says with a smirk of her own as she lays her head back against his shoulder again.

“Yeah, well. You love me.” Chad grins and shrugs. “So, any good pranks on people who didn’t end up ... allies?”

Jay speaks up from where he’s curled around Carlos and Evie in apology of the way they had acted before. “The time we stole Uma’s and Harry’s bras and flew them from the mast of the Lost Revenge was a good one.”

Mal snorts, remembering how she and Jay had snuck onto the ship and found their way to the laundry. The only people who slept on the ship regularly were Uma, Harry, and Gil, so it had been easy enough to find the bras of the two people who wore them.

Jay had pulled down the rope for the flag, and Mal slung the clothing through the loops before they hoisted it back up to fly proudly.

Carlos and Evie are snickering as Jay explains their trick to the AKs.

“You should have seen the look on Harry’s face, he was so pissed when he saw them on the flag!” Mal grins. “I drew a sketch of it afterward, left it at the hideout. Gil had to climb up and get them while Uma kept Harry from trying to cut down the mast with just his hook.”

“I ... have a question.” Jane says quietly, and Mal looks over to see the AKs exchanging looks of confusion. “Is Harry ... a guy?”

“Yeah, real asshole, son of Captain Hook.” Carlos says, nodding.

Jane shares a glance with the others but looks back at them. “So, um ... why does he, um, have a bra?”

Oh. Yeah, that probably didn’t make sense, did it. Mal was so used to it she didn’t even question it, but maybe they had different ideas here in Auradon.

Evie is explaining. “Harry was born Harriet, daughter of Hook, and then he decided he was a boy instead most of the time. No one really cares what you call yourself on the Isle, or what you wear. Can’t do much about the breasts, though, so he just layers over tight bras.”

“Lots of leather vests.” Jay adds. “Helps add to the pirate look.”

Carlos jabs Jay in the ribs. “So what’s your excuse?”

Mal watches the AKs share glances as Jay puts Carlos in a headlock, and wonders what rules Auradon has about that kind of thing. “Let me guess, people do things differently in Auradon.”

They already know the ideas Auradon has about females on their fencing teams, Lonnie had ranted enough on their trip during their impromptu practice.

“Yeah, kinda.” Ben shrugs, looking pained. “They’re just, you know...”

“Old-fashioned fucks.” Chad mutters. “Set in their ways from twenty years ago, never wanting to change. They’ve gotten slightly better about letting people like who people like. The queen of Auradon being openly bisexual helped others come out of the woodworks, Queen Elsa, and the king and queen of Corona too. They’re just not great with gender yet.”

He shrugs when he sees the VKs all looking at him. “I like to sew. The number of times my grandfather has despaired that his son’s only heir designs clothing is higher than I can count.”

That gets Evie’s attention. “You design clothing?”

Oh sweet evil, now he’s done it. They’ll never get those two to talk about anything else.

Audrey has the same idea Mal does, and covers Chad’s mouth with her hand as Mal covers Evie’s. “Nope. Design talk later, group talk now. We were talking about pranks. Lonnie, favorite joke you’ve pulled. Go.”

Mal laughs as Evie licks her hand, pulling away quickly, and the conversation moves on. Auradon may take some getting used to, but they’ve found a decent group of people to help them along the way.

That’s all she and her crew — she and her ... friends, maybe — can ask for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, the NB Harry idea came from mishearing something on one of the Isle of the Lost audiobooks, I heard 'Harriet' instead of Harry and my brain went 'okay we accept this headcanon' even though Harriet is technically his older sister. So, just roll with it. Nonbinary Harry Hook was already going to happen, that just gave him a deadname. (Which was only used to explain, and I have mixed feelings about including, but I put it in anyway because I don't think Harry would be bothered by it.)


	20. Movie Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, TWs for this are just light mentions of Isle abuse (Jafar being an asshole father), but otherwise this one is mostly the boys ignoring their problems. We all gotta have nights like that every once in a while. Jay doesn't like talking about his feelings.

Doug is working on Chemistry homework when he hears the window slide open. He doesn’t think anything of it at first. Chad is doing his own homework on his bed, he can easily open the window.

Then Chad clears his throat.

“Um, hey, Jay.” Doug looks over, pencil poised in midair to write the next equation. True enough, Jay is standing in front of the window, sliding it shut with barely a sound. He turns and throws himself onto Doug’s empty bed with a groan.

“Go ahead, make yourself at home.” Doug says dryly, rolling his eyes. He doesn’t really mind, and he thinks Jay knows that from the smirk he can see when the VK turns his head so he’s not suffocating into the pillow.

“This is so much softer than my home.” He says, and Doug shares a careful look with Chad.

“Hard bed?” Chad says softly, using the voice he thinks Doug can’t hear when he talks to Audrey sometimes.

Jay snorts. “Try no bed. A rug, on the floor, when he wasn’t locking me out.”

Okay. There’s too much there to unpack right now, so Doug shoves aside the burning questions he wants to ask and gets back to the matter at hand.

“So, what brings you to the fine establishment of room 27 at — “ he glances over at the clock on the wall, “ — at 8:52 on a Wednesday?”

Jay is silent for a long minute, and Doug puts the pencil down, giving up on homework for the night. Chad has already shoved his papers to the side of his bed as he sits up to give Jay his own assessing look.

“Is everything okay, with the others? Carlos, and the girls?” Doug asks, wondering if they need to be sneaking down to Jay’s room or across the quad to the girls’ dorm.

“They’re fine.” Jay shrugs a shoulder, grimacing. “I just, I ... I dunno.”

“Do you — have something you need us to explain or help you understand?” Doug is used to the VKs coming up with random questions about things that he had never had to even think about, much less explain. He had never realized how much privilege he lived with until meeting the VKs and watching Carlos’ eyes light up as Doug explained the television’s remote and gaming system.

The VK sprawling across Doug’s bed shakes his head, but then huffs out a breath as he taps one finger on his thigh almost without thinking in what Doug had figured out was ‘yes’ in their coded language. “I keep ... thinking about ... that whole ‘friends’ thing.” Jay finally says. Doug remembers watching the VKs’ discomfort last week while they were hanging out after the camping trip. All four of them had been uncomfortable, but Mal and Jay had taken even longer than the others to relax back into the conversation.

“Questions? Comments? Concerns?” Chad says, and Doug snorts. That was something their history teacher last year had said at the end of every class period. Apparently it had stuck.

Jay doesn’t say anything, instead running his fingers across the blanket underneath him. Doug and Chad wait, allowing the room to fall into silence.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“So it’s an ‘ignore your problems’ night, huh?” Chad says with a smirk. “Excellent, I love those. Wanna watch a movie?”

Doug glares at his roommate, who knows as well as he does that ignoring problems doesn’t fix anything. Chad shrugs back at him.

“Boulder method. One step at a time, remember?”

Doug does remember. He had read the same books Chad had — okay, so he had read Chad’s books. He had been curious why the prince had several psychology self-help books hidden in his bookcase. They, and Audrey, had had several long conversations since then.

He’s just not good at working through problems by breaking them down into smaller sections and tackling those separately. But he does understand the usefulness of such an approach.

“Fine. Want to watch a movie?” Doug sees Jay look between him and Chad carefully, searching for a trap, and shrugs. “We can work on the whole ‘friends’ thing later.”

Jay sighs. “Fine. What movie?”

Chad already has an answer. “The Breakfast Club.”

Doug laughs. “Oh god.” He sees what Chad is doing. A bunch of teenagers doing crazy shit on a Saturday during school that end up becoming friends? Perfect analogy for the VKs and their allies-to-friends process.

Jay is going to love Bender. This is a terrible idea.


End file.
